Beyond Vibe Coding: Why Engineers Matter More Than Ever | Carlos Sousa, OutSystems

Can AI build your software for you? Carlos Sousa, Vice President of Engineering at OutSystems, explains why real systems need much more than vibe coding, and why engineers matter more than ever. Carlos leads a global engineering team of 180, putting AI at the core of how they build software. In this conversation with host Sunil S. Ranka, he shares how OutSystems went from experimenting with AI tools to an AI-native way of building software, what "build" really means for a CFO, and why the best engineers are the ones who solve problems, not just write code. In this episode: • How AI is changing the way software is built • Why real systems need more than vibe coding • The cost per unit of work in agentic systems • Deterministic vs non-deterministic AI in the enterprise • How AI agents give each engineer more leverage • Advice for CTOs adopting AI, step by step • Why T-shaped engineers will win Chapters: 0:00 Why engineers matter more than ever 0:25 Meet Carlos Sousa 0:36 In this episode 0:48 Intro 1:11 Carlos's journey: from Portugal to OutSystems 4:10 Rethinking how software is built with AI 6:20 More than vibe coding: building the whole system 10:10 Competing with frontier models: what "build" really means 13:40 The cost per unit of work in agentic systems 16:10 When AI makes everything look the same 19:30 Deterministic vs non-deterministic AI in the enterprise 24:50 Do teams need fewer engineers? 28:10 AI democratizes speed 31:35 Advice for CTOs: OutSystems' journey with AI 36:40 Spec-driven development and standards 37:45 How a leader scales: speed, quality, pragmatism, autonomy 43:10 Rapid fire 44:00 Leading humans in the age of agents 46:17 Why T-shaped engineers will win 49:37 Thank you Listen to the podcast: Website: Svtechpodcast.com Spotify: Open.spotify.com Apple Podcasts: Podcasts.apple.com Amazon Music: Music.amazon.com Connect with Carlos Sousa: Linkedin.com Host, Sunil S. Ranka: Linkedin.com Follow The Silicon Valley Tech Podcast: LinkedIn: Linkedin.com X: Twitter.com #AI #SoftwareEngineering #VibeCoding #OutSystems #AgenticAI #LowCode #Podcast