The Future of Engineering May Have Fewer Handoffs

AI is not just changing how engineers write code. It is changing who gets close enough to shape the work.

In this episode of The Tech Trek, Robert Stewart, CTO at Arbital Health, joins Amir to talk about how AI is bringing actuarial subject matter experts closer to product and engineering teams, especially in healthcare and risk based contracts. Robert shares how his team is pairing technically minded SMEs with software engineers, using AI tools in development, and rethinking technical hiring now that AI assisted coding is part of the job.

Practical Takeaways

• AI can reduce the distance between domain experts and engineering when the SMEs can clearly describe requirements, acceptance criteria, and edge cases.

• Pairing a subject matter expert with an experienced engineer can be more powerful than traditional pair programming because each person brings a different kind of judgment.

• Better written requirements matter more in an AI assisted workflow because tools can work directly from detailed tickets and context.

• Technical interviews may need to test how candidates use AI, not whether they can avoid it.

• Hiring teams need stronger signals around identity, environment fit, prompting skill, and how candidates respond to AI output.

Timestamped Highlights

00:00 Robert Stewart on Arbital Health, value based care, and the role of actuarial expertise in healthcare infrastructure.

03:06 Why actuarial knowledge is hard to transfer into engineering teams through normal handoffs.

04:40 How AI helps subject matter experts move closer to product and engineering work.

06:08 Why engineering fundamentals still matter, even when AI makes code easier to create.

09:55 How Arbital Health is using Cursor, Claude Code, and human review in a regulated environment.

14:52 Why more detailed Jira tickets are becoming more valuable in AI assisted development.

17:10 How AI is changing technical interviews from “you may use AI” to “you must use AI.”

22:16 What suspicious candidates, remote interviews, and fake profiles are forcing hiring teams to rethink.

One Line That Stuck

“You can judge an expert by the type of questions they ask.”

Pro Tips

• Ask candidates to share their screen during AI assisted technical interviews.

• Watch how they prompt, not just what they produce.

• Look for whether they catch strange or weak AI output.

• Use a rubric, but also evaluate whether the candidate fits the way your team actually works.

• For AI generated code, add stronger human review, especially in regulated environments.

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