Ex-Gojek CTO: Why the Age of AI Rewards Builders as Judgment Becomes Expensive

If expertise is becoming almost free, why is judgment becoming the most expensive skill in tech? Ajey Gore, former Gojek CTO, explains why the age of AI agents rewards builders over typists.

In this episode, Ajey Gore, former Group CTO of Gojek and Operating Partner at Peak XV Partners, explains why coding agents are forcing software teams to rethink what “correct” really means. He argues that as expertise becomes cheap, judgment becomes the scarcest and most valuable skill in engineering. Ajey walks through why the classic developer-to-reviewer workflow no longer makes sense when agents can generate thousands of lines a day, and why trunk-based development, feature flags, and rigorous testing matter more than ever. He also shares how he built ClawStation solo, coordinating specialized AI agents through story cards instead of writing code by hand. The conversation covers why most organizations still fail to see returns from AI adoption, and what happens when leaders cut headcount without redesigning how work actually flows.

Key topics discussed:

Why judgment, not typing speed, is now the scarce skill
The workflow mistake behind most failed AI adoption
How Ajey built ClawStation solo without writing code
Why he advocates trunk-based development to replace PRs
The real risk of cutting headcount before rethinking work
Why “earning time” matters as much as earning money
Southeast Asia’s surprising advantage in the AI era

Timestamps:

(00:00:00) Trailer & Intro
(00:04:10) What Has Life Been Like Since Leaving Peak XV?
(00:09:02) Why Should You Create Slack Instead of Always Running Full Speed?
(00:13:47) Why Being Uncomfortable and Replaceable Makes You More Valuable
(00:18:12) Why Earning Time Matters as Much as Earning Money
(00:24:57) Why Is This the Age of Builders, Not Typists?
(00:40:55) What Should You Not Do While Navigating the AI Revolution?
(00:50:07) What Are the Top Engineering Practices Needed to Leverage the AI Revolution?
(00:55:09) How Did Ajey Build ClawStation Solo Using Story Cards and Agent Roles?
(00:58:57) How Can Developers Successfully Let Go of Writing Code by Hand?
(01:02:29) Why Do 95% of Organizations Fail to See AI ROI?
(01:08:49) What Are the Real Dangers of AI-Driven Layoffs?
(01:12:20) What Does the Future Hold for the Southeast Asian Tech Scene?
(01:15:29) What Must We Do to Avoid Losing Our Fundamental Thinking Skills to AI?
(01:19:25) 3 Tech Lead Wisdom

_____

Ajey Gore’s Bio
Ajey Gore is a technologist, builder, and founder who has spent two decades turning engineering into scale. As Group CTO of Gojek, he grew the platform from 300K to 120M monthly orders and built a 2,000-strong engineering org powering one of Southeast Asia’s largest super-apps. He was an early employee at ThoughtWorks India, founded CodeIgnition (acquired by Gojek), and served as Operating Partner at Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India & SEA), advising founders across the region. Today he builds and advises at the intersection of AI, infrastructure, and product — and is a hands-on practitioner who still ships code.

Follow Ajey:

Website – ajeygore.in
X / Twitter – x.com/ajeygore
LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/ajeygore
ClawStation – clawstation.ai

Like this episode?
Show notes & transcript: techleadjournal.dev/episodes/263.
Follow @techleadjournal on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Buy me a coffee or become a patron.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(282)

The IT/OT Handbook: From Silos to Sustainable Digitalization - David Ariens & Willem van Lammeren

Why can’t you “move fast and break things” in a factory? Because a small software bug doesn’t just crash an app, it can shut down a plant the size of a small city. David and Willem explain the hidden ...

28 Sep 1h 7min

Don't Outsource Your Thinking: How to Lead in the AI-Native Era - Emilie Schario

What’s the one rule that matters most when AI writes most of your code? Emilie says it comes down to a single line: don’t outsource your thinking.In this episode, Emilie Schario, co-founder of Kilo Co...

7 Sep 59min

The Father of AI Assistant on Why Joy Comes Before Success - Kevin Surace

If you’re not using AI five times an hour, you’re already behind, says the man who built the first AI assistant back in 1998. Kevin explains why that pace is now the baseline, not the exception, for d...

24 Aug 55min

Software Engineering Laws Every Developer Must Know in the AI Era - Milan Milanovic

Does moving faster with AI mean you get to skip the laws that governed every software project before it? Milan Milanovic argues the opposite, the old laws of software engineering now apply twice as ha...

10 Aug 1h 1min

Signals & Levers: Systems Thinking to Navigate Software Delivery Illusions - Elisabeth Hendrickson & Joel Tosi

(04:48) Brought to you by SpeechifyAITired of text-to-speech that sounds robotic or costs too much at scale? SpeechifyAI's new Simba 3.2 model ranks #1 on Artificial Analysis for realness, priced unde...

3 Aug 1h 17min

From Technical Debt to Triple Debt: The Hidden Cost of AI-Generated Code

Is vibe coding quietly draining the thing that makes teams effective: their shared understanding? Margaret breaks down her new “triple debt” model, and why cognitive debt might be the one nobody’s tra...

27 Jul 1h 10min

The AI Productivity Paradox: Why 10X Output Doesn't Mean 10X Business Outcome

What if optimizing for AI output is actually slowing your company down? When code becomes nearly free to produce, the organizations still measuring productivity by output are solving the wrong problem...

29 Jun 1h 5min