Rabobank: Agentic AI Is Significantly Reshaping How Engineers Work
Members in the News: Computable, 21 July, featuring Alexander Zwart, CITO of Rabobank and Board Member of CIO Platform Netherlands. Alexander Zwart sees the rise of agentic AI as a turning point that is fundamentally changing the day-to-day practice of software development. However, he emphasizes that this by no means signals the end of the engineer. As AI agents take over an increasing number of development tasks, the need for human oversight, governance, and direction becomes even more important. As a result, the role of software developers is evolving rather than disappearing.
Rabobank is preparing for a future in which AI agents perform a large share of software development work. According to CITO Alexander Zwart, the role of engineers is shifting from programming to directing, monitoring, and securing AI systems. He refers to this as the “shift to the left”: a greater focus on design, quality, governance, and risk management, and less emphasis on manually writing code.
To deploy AI responsibly, Rabobank is investing in model governance, compliance, and European AI solutions, including a stake in the Italian AI platform Domyn. Zwart does not expect AI to replace jobs; rather, he believes that roles will evolve and new positions will emerge around AI governance, oversight, and data management.
In addition, Rabobank has established an Agentic AI Hub that supports more than 1,100 development teams with AI agents, standards, and reusable solutions. The goal is to make software development more efficient while ensuring that humans remain responsible for oversight, control, and decision-making.
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