AI is changing the pace of work faster than many organizations can adapt. For Matt Brown, founder and CEO of Waverley Software and co-founder of Skywood AI, one of the biggest challenges is learning how to balance that speed with something AI cannot replace: human judgment.
In his conversation with Flavia Taborga on Byte Happens, Matt reflects on the many technology transitions he has experienced throughout his career, from the internet and mobile to cloud computing and now AI. But he sees AI as different because it's changing things so fast and so widely.
The Rise of the AI Timescale
One of Matt's key ideas is the distinction between AI timescale and human timescale.
AI can dramatically accelerate tasks, allowing teams to research, build, test, and iterate much faster. But people still need time to think, reflect, communicate, and make decisions. Moving faster doesn't automatically mean producing better work.
“You can go really quickly, and then you have to slow down to give people a chance to catch up to what's happening around you.”
— Matt Brown
For Matt, this balance is becoming increasingly important as AI becomes integrated into everyday workflows. Teams need to recognize when to use AI's speed and when to slow down so people can catch up, collaborate, and make thoughtful decisions.
AI Is Changing What It Means to Be an Engineer
Matt believes this shift is especially significant for software engineering teams. Instead of limiting each person to a single specialized skill, AI can give everyone access to capabilities beyond their traditional roles.
A UX designer, engineer, project manager, or business analyst can increasingly participate in areas outside their primary expertise. Someone with strong engineering experience may no longer spend most of their time writing code, but that doesn't mean the engineering skill has disappeared.
Instead, expertise is being applied in new ways: evaluating AI-generated work, identifying problems, deciding what to build, and determining whether the result delivers value.
From Specialized Roles to Real-Time Collaboration
AI is also changing how specialists collaborate.
In the past, teams often divided work into separate stages: one person created a wireframe, another built the software, and others reviewed the result later. With AI, teams can increasingly build and evaluate ideas in real time. The result is a more fluid collaboration model where people bring their experience to the process while AI accelerates execution.
That doesn't make expertise less important; it changes how expertise is used.
Why Human Judgment Still Matters
Matt is clear that AI shouldn't simply be given control and left alone. AI can make mistakes, hallucinate information, or produce something different from what was intended.
That's why keeping a human in the loop remains critical.
“Human in the loop in my mind is critical.”
— Matt Brown
The ability to review AI output, spot when something is wrong, and decide whether it actually makes sense is becoming an increasingly important skill.
As AI gets faster and more capable, evaluating what it produces may become as important as producing the work in the first place.
The Best Way to Learn AI? Start Using It
For Matt, the answer isn't to wait for AI to become perfect or to try to understand everything before getting started.
His advice is simple: start.
Experiment with AI, learn what it can do, work alongside people who are also learning, and develop the ability to guide and evaluate it. Like learning a language or an instrument, becoming fluent with AI takes practice.
The more people use these tools, the more they learn how to guide them, what to expect, and when to be more precise or give them greater freedom.
The Transformation Is Just Beginning
The AI transformation is still in its early stages, and the pace is unlikely to slow down.
For organizations and individuals, the challenge isn't simply adopting the latest AI tools. It's learning how to combine AI's speed with human experience, judgment, creativity, and collaboration.
The future of work may move faster than ever, but knowing when to move fast and when to slow down and think could become one of our most valuable skills.
