The New Stack Makers

Sean O’Dell of Dynatrace argues that enterprises are unprepared for a major shift brought on by AI: the rise of the developer. Speaking at Dynatrace Perform in Las Vegas, O’Dell explains that AI-assisted and “vibe” coding are collapsing traditional boundaries in software development. Developers, once insulated from production by layers of operations and governance, are now regaining end-to-end ownership of the entire software lifecycle — from development and testing to deployment and security. This shift challenges long-standing enterprise structures built around separation of duties and risk mitigation. At the same time, the definition of “developer” is expanding. With AI lowering technical barriers, software creation is becoming more about creative intent than mastery of specialized tools, opening the door to nontraditional developers. Experimentation is also moving into production environments, a change that would have seemed reckless just 18 months ago. According to O’Dell, enterprises now understand AI w