A Welcome Advancement

As most are aware, certainly those of us in the technology industry, Anthropic shook the foundations of software earlier this month by publicizing that the company was approaching 100% automation for internal code generation with “Claude being written by Claude”. Unclear about the actual implications of the news, what most folks in the world heard is that AI will be creating software for users, and that developers and software engineers are a thing of the past. 

After an almost 30-year career in the cybersecurity field, I feel like I can see through hyperbole pretty well. This, however, feels different from most vendor promises (which, let’s be clear, is exactly what Anthropic was publicizing).

For starters, I was surprised by the number of people reaching out to me to discuss this “watershed” event in AI development. 

However, my comments this time are similar to the comments I’ve made when news of other AI-related advances has broken. Now, just as then, I’ve stated that these recent advancements in AI are critically important to our future.

From the perspective of a cybersecurity company that develops risk and compliance software for highly secure, highly regulated organizations, this advancement is a gift.

The reasons are complex, but I can say that adopting AI for our own development and QA testing has been a game-changer, enabling us to get more done with fewer resources.

Since 2000, when we initially released our first risk and compliance software offering, we’ve been working to continually evolve, attempting to get more accomplished in shorter timelines. Early analysis is that AI is already giving our engineers and testers the ability (in some cases) to get 50% more accomplished in the same timeframe. That’s a 50% increase in productivity across the entire team for less than the cost of one new full-time junior developer per year. 

Enterprise Software and AI: Future Implications

So, you may ask, “Where does this take us?”

And, will AI replace the human software developer or tester? 

For some software, yes – it will. Very specific use cases, such as simple applications and mobile applications. As a matter of fact, it’s likely that soon your child’s chore chart software will be created on the fly by AI. 

Enterprise business software, on the other hand, is about as far removed from the concept of “simple” as it gets. 

But here’s what’s exciting: AI will dramatically enhance enterprise business software, reduce costs for customers, and simultaneously reduce the mundane aspects of using such complex platforms.

With our latest release, we’ve already seen an evolution in how customers are using our software. Xacta added AI integrations in late September 2025, and our early adopters are working with our software in more meaningful, risk-focused interactions.

Enterprise software, in this case our Xacta platform, uses complex, diverse information to produce a risk and compliance view of your enterprise, organization, or project. We contextualize that information with data from other tools (vulnerability, configuration management, etc.) against both requirements and regulatory guidance. 

The result is data that drives risk decisions quickly.

Software Engineers: More Valuable Than Ever

Software is not dead, nor is the career of the engineer. 

This moment is akin to watching the first surgeons begin leveraging laparoscopic robots in the operating room. Advanced surgical robotics can dramatically reduce pain, errors, and even risks of patient deaths when operated by a skilled surgeon. 

However, not just anyone should take the wheel of one of these robots and begin removing someone’s appendix or gallbladder. Knowing exactly how to manipulate these machines is quite literally the difference between life and death for the patient.

AI is no different. The most skilled “hands” will be the software engineers who embrace AI with a deep understanding of their craft and the needs of the subject matter experts and end users. They will be able to quickly spot hallucinations and gently correct coding errors.

But, most importantly, they will understand the “Why.”

The “Why” a software exists is critical to solving our most difficult problems. That purpose drives innovative, nuanced explorations in problem-solving that ultimately creates value. 

These are exciting times, and AI will deliver rapid acceleration for companies that choose to leverage it for software development. But it will never start with the “Why.”  

Because that part is up to us — and always will be.

Faster Innovation — and Greater Benefits for Xacta Customers

What this means for Xacta will be monumental. 

In my 20-year tenure with Telos, we have had too many good ideas and not enough resources to bring them all to life within the product.

Such is the curse of software development: prioritization. 

Embracing AI across our product suite, software development, and testing is enabling our team to clear the backlog and quickly deliver new capabilities like never before.

Xacta customers may be the ones who benefit the most. But from my standpoint, I’m thrilled to know that the Xacta team and I will get to see our ideas (some really big ones) finally move from roadmap to reality.