EP 51: AI-Native Software Development: Building Production Systems with Multi-Agent AI

"AI native software development" gets thrown around everywhere right now—and almost nobody can define it clearly. Not a chatbot bolted on. Not Copilot autocomplete. We mean production-grade systems where AI agents write, orchestrate, and ship the work end-to-end. In this episode, hosts Sam Dave and Mac Goswami sit down with Mohamed Faker, Engineering Leader, Financial Services AI at Vanguard Group and co-founder/CTO of Hirin, a fractional leadership hiring platform built almost entirely by orchestrating specialized AI agents. Key Insights: What AI-Native Actually Means — Every line of code in Hirin was AI-produced. Mohamed's role: architect, decision-maker, final say on direction—not the one typing code. From Solo Orchestrator to Manager of Agents — How he evolved from manually prompting individual AI chats (architect, UX expert, engineer) to building agent hierarchies with sub-agents and dedicated "audit" agents reporting directly to him. Where Agents Fail — Spotting when an agent burns tokens without progress, takes conversations sideways, or simply isn't suited to the task—and knowing when to stop. Validation at Scale — Building internal "audit department" agents that verify other agents did exactly what was asked, nothing more, nothing less. Product Management Is the New Core Skill — Knowing how to break down features, prioritize by dependency and complexity, matters more than knowing how to code. Biggest AI Adoption Mistakes — Rushing to adopt AI without defining real ROI, plus strategies that fail because the workforce isn't trained or willing to execute them. Human-AI Collaboration — Why the human must always stay in the loop as critical thinker and decision-maker, even as the agent-to-human ratio shifts dramatically. The Horse-and-Carriage Analogy — Entire industries can disappear in 15 years, but the people who adapted earned more by managing the new technology rather than resisting it. Mohamed's takeaway: "The future is you managing a subset of AI agents. Think about it-you're going to have multiple versions of yourself working together." Connect with Mohamed Faker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohamed-faker/ Check out Hyern: https://hyern.com/ Subscribe: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music | iHeart Radio | YouTube #AINative #MultiAgentAI #SoftwareDevelopment #AIAdoption #ProductManagement #AsembleAI