Building Smarter Apps with AI | Josh Bermann & Adam Cogan | NDC Melbourne 2025

Josh Berman catches up with Adam Cogan at NDC Melbourne to explore the cutting-edge world of enterprise AI applications. In thischat, Adam teases his upcoming talk where he shares 12 essential lessons from building SSW’s AI-powered tool Yak Shaver.
e dives into the evolution from traditional apps to generative AI, the challenges faced with Microsoft Teams, cost modeling missteps, and how the newly emerging MCP is reshaping what intelligent agents can do. Whether you’re an AI developer, architect, or product owner, this session is a goldmine of practical takeaways to bring into your next AI project.

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Top 3 Aspire Features Every Developer Needs to Know | Aaron Powell & Matt Wicks | Slash NEW 2025

Join Matt Wicks as he chats with Microsoft’s Aaron Powell about the latest updates in Aspire. Discover the top three quality-of-life improvements that are transforming the dev loop experience—custom endpoints, resource graphing, and GitHub Copilot integration. Watch live demos, troubleshoot cascading failures, and explore how Aspire helps diagnose issues across any tech stack using OpenTelemetry. A must-watch for devs looking to boost productivity and insight into their apps.

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Why 2025 is the Year of the Agent (or Is It?) | Gert Marx & Ulysses Maclaren | NDC Melbourne 2025

In this discussion from NDC Melbourne, Ulysses Maclaren sits down with Gert Marx to unpack one of the hottest topics in AI: agents. Are we truly in the “Year of the Agent,” or is the tech world just riding another buzzword wave? Ulysses shares what makes a real agent, contrasting them with rule-based systems, AI workflows, and generative models. With concrete examples and industry insights, he explains when it’s best to use an agent, when a workflow will suffice, and why so many companies are marketing non-agents as agents. If you’re building AI-powered solutions and unsure what tools are best suited to your problem space, this talk is a must-watch.

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