AI-assisted development is no longer judged by how impressive it looks in a demo. For teams working on real systems, the question is whether AI still holds up once it meets real workflows, real constraints, and real delivery pressure.
That question will be answered at OCX by Jonas Helming. As Principal Software Architect at EclipseSource and a long-time contributor to the Eclipse Foundation ecosystem, he works on AI-native developer tools such as Eclipse Theia, helping teams adopt AI coding in ways that are transparent, extensible, and usable in practice. Rather than treating AI as a feature layered onto existing tools, his focus is on how AI reshapes developer workflows end to end.
In an interview ahead of OCX, Helming explains why many AI demos fail to translate into daily engineering practice. Too often, teams treat AI as something they can simply bolt onto existing processes. He says, “if you consider AI as something that you want to add to your existing workflow, you create a blocker from day one.” AI-assisted development does not sit neatly alongside established practices. It reshapes them entirely, from how developers work day to day to how projects and requirements are managed.
This disconnect becomes obvious in live environments. AI can dramatically reduce the effort required to execute well-defined tasks, but it also shifts pressure elsewhere. In the interview, Helming explains that “the surrounding workflow becomes the bottleneck and requires more attention, basically because the execution is shrinking.” Preparation, problem framing, quality control, and deployment suddenly matter more than ever, and they are exactly where many demos stop short.
AI in action at OCX
This is why he insists on live demonstrations in his OCX session, “AI in Action: The Ultimate Live Demo with Theia AI.” Rather than slides, he shows AI agents being created, customised, and orchestrated in real time inside an AI-native IDE. The session shows both where AI delivers immediate efficiency and where careful engineering decisions are still required.
If you are sceptical of AI demos that only work on stage, this session is designed for you. Helming’s live, hands-on approach shows what already works today and what still breaks in open, extensible developer tools.
Join him in Brussels in April 2026 at Open Community Experience 2026 to see what AI in developer tools actually delivers today, where it still requires careful engineering, and what that means for teams building serious software.
