The End of “Good Code”? AI, Throughput, and Reliability with CircleCI CTO Rob Zuber

Is “good code” still the right measure of engineering success in an AI-driven world? In this episode of Humans of Reliability, Rob Zuber, CircleCI CTO, joins Sylvain to explore how coding assistants are reshaping developer workflows and changing what teams value.

Rob shares what he’s seeing across CircleCI’s customer base: a clear boost in throughput, new bottlenecks shifting from code creation to code review, and the rise of “vibe coding,” where engineers trust AI-generated code they may not fully understand.

He challenges long-held assumptions about readability and maintainability, arguing that software engineering is on the edge of a paradigm shift. For SREs and developers alike, this conversation is a candid look at how to stay relevant, embrace simplicity, and rethink reliability in the age of AI.