AI tools are now commonplace in software development, and teams can produce code faster than ever before. But faster output doesn’t automatically mean better results, especially when hidden bugs, security holes, integration issues, and maintenance issues are also moving quickly through the pipeline.
That’s why the DevOps discipline—the operations and quality teams working together to build, test, and improve software—is becoming more important, not less, as AI is integrated into the workflow. Below, its members Forbes Technology Council discuss the DevOps practices organizations must foster to transform AI-driven speed into reliable, secure, and sustainable software delivery.
Combine AI-assisted development with production guardrails
Organizations must foster engineering excellence through disciplined review and quality portals. AI can speed up code generation, but it can also amplify defects, security holes, and inconsistencies. The real advantage comes from combining AI-assisted development with stronger testing, peer review, and production guardrails. – Vikas Mittal, Walmart Global Tech
Strengthening testing discipline
As AI accelerates code generation, the volume and speed of code changes will increase dramatically. However, AI-generated code can introduce subtle bugs, security vulnerabilities, and inconsistencies that may not be immediately visible. Without strong testing discipline, organizations risk developing faster but with lower quality and higher risk. – Kirti Acharya, Anlage Digital
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Complete automated test command
Comprehensive automated testing is essential, especially at multiple levels, including unit, integration, and security testing. Monitoring is another critical area. with faster deployments and more code in production, visibility and monitoring are critical. – Rajesh Rangarajan, OnTrac AI
Continuous testing of data pipes
I would emphasize continuous testing of data pipelines, not just application code. AI-generated code can write a function in seconds, but if that function comes from uncontrolled data sources, you’re escalating bad decisions. – Jacqueline DeStefano-Tangorra, DataOps
Combine automated checks with human review
Code review and ongoing code integrity checks will be essential. Faster code generation means more PRs, more review fatigue, and a higher risk of bugs, security holes, and quality issues. To keep quality in high gear, teams will need multi-layered automated verification and structured human control to maintain security, reliability, and architectural consistency. – Itamar Friedman, Qodo.ai
Invest in Agent application security
The news is about what AI can destroy tomorrow. Anthropic’s Glasswing is a pioneering project to address this. AI models make it faster and cheaper to exploit known vulnerabilities in production today, and the risk will only increase as AI-generated code proliferates. All of this makes modern, representative application security an urgent and essential part of your DevSecOps stack. – Sandeep Johri, Checkmarx
Maintain end-user testing
As AI creates more code and produces updates faster, I believe we need to ensure that the DevOps process mandates end-user testing of changes to understand the impact on their workflows. Many of the changes introduced may be functionally better, but we cannot forget the impact they can have on human operators. – David Van Ronk, Bridgehead IT
Protect long-term sustainability through review
When production increases, revision becomes more important. The point is no longer to catch small bugs, but to protect architecture, boundaries, and long-term maintainability. In faster development environments, code review is where teams ensure that short-term speed doesn’t create long-term instability. – Daniel Gumuccio, AssureSoft
Source of track code
As AI accelerates code generation, DevOps must enhance code provenance. Teams need reliable ways to track what’s written by humans, what’s generated by AI, and what’s mixed so they can manage risk, validate behavior, and identify vulnerabilities. It’s the same discipline they apply to good data management. – Carl D’Halloween, Datadobi
Code review for intent
Code review is essential – not for syntax, but for intent. AI-generated code can be line-by-line correct and still be architecturally wrong. Risk is not errors. They are systems that work today and become unmaintainable tomorrow because no human really understands what was built. As AI writes more code, the engineering team’s job shifts from writing to judging, and judging requires rethinking. – Charles Yeomans, Atombeam
Enhancing security, telemetry and stakeholder approval
With artificial intelligence, we need to focus on three main things. First, safety—one of the most important aspects. Second, telemetry—to make sure we’re getting it right. and third, gateways—because at every level, even though we use artificial intelligence, we need to have the approval of all stakeholders to cover both direct and indirect dependencies. – Nitin MukhiCoforge INC.
Double Down on CI/CD
A robust pipeline—tests, rocks, security checks, and gate development—catch most issues arising from AI-generated code. Combine this with lightweight human review for edge cases and QA. Much of the review can be standardized and automated, but human judgment still matters. Over time, even QA is becoming more and more automatable. – John Jeong, Char
Enhancement of automated test pipelines
Automated testing is essential. AI removes the coding bottleneck, but without strong test pipelines, it just moves the bottleneck down to manual review. More code volume means more risk, more edge cases, and more room for subtle bugs that AI won’t catch on its own. Empowering automated testing is how teams actually ship faster without sacrificing quality or security. – Mateusz Mucha, Omni Calculator
Deepening observability practices
Organizations should enhance observability. As AI creates more code, complexity and unpredictability increase. Powerful monitoring, logging, and detection ensure that teams can quickly identify, understand, and fix problems, maintaining reliability, performance, and trust in rapidly evolving systems. – Dax Grant, Global Transformation
Password validation before speed scaling
We need to strengthen code review and automated testing, not push them aside. AI accelerates production, but not accountability. Without rigorous validation—CI pipelines, testing, and peer review—you escalate bugs and vulnerabilities just as quickly. Speed without the risk of control compounds. Disciplined validation is what turns speed into reliable delivery. – Faustino Junior, First. Doctor
Enforce CI/CD test gates
Enhance automated testing and validation (CI/CD gateways). AI can generate code quickly, but its outputs are not always correct or secure. Robust unit, integration, and security testing ensure quality, prevent vulnerabilities, and maintain trust before code reaches production. – Sanjoy Sarkar, First Citizens Bank
Use observability to set up rapid change
Enhancing observability-based DevOps. As AI accelerates code generation, hidden defects, displacement and security gaps can scale just as quickly. Deep telemetry, traceability and feedback loops ensure rapid detection, validation and governance, turning speed into reliable production quality results, not amplified risk. – Pampitra Saikia, Truist Bank
Make rehearsing a permanent practice
Reinforce rehearsing as an ongoing practice rather than just in response to a crisis. As AI accelerates the frequency of development, the pure reversal of a bad release becomes more valuable than rapid development. Organizations that practice rolling back only when something breaks find that the process itself is broken. Regular exercises turn recovery from an emergency skill into a reliable functional muscle. – Jagadish Gokavarapu, Wissen Infotech
Strengthen version control by receiving a prompt
As AI accelerates coding, the real asset becomes the prompt, not just the code. Organizations should capture and manage prompts from business users, analysts, architects, and developers alongside code in Git, ensuring transparency, reusability, and alignment with intent. – Anne Blakely, Baker Tilly
