AI is rapidly transforming how we build and operate platforms. But beyond the buzzwords, how are engineering leaders using AI to drive real impact? This panel brings together experts from Nvidia, Google, Thoughtworks, and Rootly to unpack concrete use cases - from auto-generating golden paths to reasoning over infrastructure state, scaling incident response with LLMs, and embedding AI in the developer experience. Moderated by Rickey Zachary, the session will dive into what’s working, what’s hype, and what platform teams must prepare for next. If you’re building or operating an internal platform today, this is where you’ll see the future take shape.

Effective platform engineering goes beyond tooling—it’s about building a shared foundation between those who create the platform and those who rely on it to deliver value. In this talk, Ahmed Bebars and Sarah Duncan reflect on their experience navigating both sides of the platform journey: Bebars from the operator’s viewpoint, architecting with open-source tools like Kubernetes, and Duncan from the customer side, using those platforms to drive outcomes.
Together, they highlight the importance of collaboration, feedback loops, and a product mindset in fostering adoption and delivering results. The session explores how standardization, open-source solutions, and continuous iteration lead to scalable platforms that empower teams and accelerate product development. Attendees will walk away with practical insights into aligning operator and user needs, improving platform usability, and understanding the broader impact of platform engineering within an organization.

In today's digital arena, NBA fans expect instant experiences as thrilling as a buzzer-beater. Our platform engineering team has transformed how quickly innovations reach fans by creating a high-performance system for developers. Since 2019, we've increased velocity by 400%, cut release cycles to under an hour, and reduced incidents by 50% —while supporting experiences across 200+ countries. I'll reveal our winning playbook: cloud frameworks for seamless deployment, reusable IaC modules that eliminate repetitive work, CI/CD pipelines with shift-left security, and AI-powered tools that accelerate coding. You'll see how these capabilities powered our award-winning Referee Engagement and Performance System (REPS), revolutionizing officiating workflows. The results? Developer engagement scores have increased by 20 points in part driven by the improvements in platform services and teams can focus on user experiences rather than infrastructure. Join me to discover how platform engineering helps NBA developers beat the buzzer with championship-level delivery.

In today's tech landscape, platforms fail when they ignore engineering culture. Drawing from 30+ years leading engineering teams at Temporal, HashiCorp, Yahoo!, and Oracle, Preeti Somal shares how cultural considerations should drive platform design.
This talk explores the often-overlooked human side of platform engineering – beyond tools and tech. Preeti will reveal practical strategies for fostering a culture where platforms enhance developer autonomy rather than restrict it. She'll discuss how to balance standardization with flexibility, measure platform success through developer happiness, and create feedback loops that continuously improve developer experience.
Learn how to build platforms that engineers truly want to use, boosting productivity and innovation across your organization.

This talk will cover content from my book, and specifically speak to common anti-patterns I've seen platform team leaders make. Some of the topics will include:
Mistake: Not writing code
Mistake: Not supporting critical systems
Mistake: Not doing customer and market research for new initiatives
Mistake: Building v2 instead of evolving from v1
Mistake: Failing to communicate your strategy, progress, and impact effectively to customers and stakeholders

Leveraging years of experience building internal platforms at Google, this session offers actionable insights for customers on creating effective development ecosystems. Learn how to prioritize safety, efficiency, and reliability through the interplay of platform engineering, feature development, and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE). Whether you’re a seasoned cloud native or new to platform engineering, this talk can help you optimize software delivery, operations, and achieve your business goals.

Internal Developer Platforms are no longer “just tooling”; they are products with customers, roadmaps and ROI expectations. To close PlatformCon Live Day, Philip Eskelin (Mizuho), Ahmed Bebars & Sarah Duncan (New York Times) and Yej Fakiyesi (Fiserv) share how they shifted from service mindset to product thinking. Guided by moderator Mallory Haigh, the group will unpack funding models, discovery practices, success signals that win executive support, and the art of balancing guardrails with developer freedom. Expect pragmatic take-aways you can apply next sprint - and a few cautionary tales for the road.