Agents fail in interesting ways. They don't crash, they drift. They don't error, they confidently do the wrong thing. Building a harness means designing for that specific kind of wrongness. At the same time, there is untapped potential in the capacity of AI coding agents to create, self-correct and learn autonomously.
This talk draws on experiences from designing architecture governance models, applying them to design canvases for bounded AI autonomy. We will explore the intentional division of responsibilities between humans and agents, enabling a symbiotic relationship for safe innovation in a continuously changing ecosystem.
You'll leave with concrete techniques for:
- Designing feedforward controls, feedback loops, and quality gates that work together as a coherent system
- Applying multi-dimensional metrics to monitor and mitigate drift, decay, and runaway feedback loops
- Structuring harness architecture using systems thinking, relying on adversarial pressure for continuous evolution
Speaker
Nimisha Asthagiri
Technical Advisor @Thoughtworks & Co-Founder of BrainLoop AILabs, Previously Chief Architect @edX
Nimisha Asthagiri is a Technical Advisor at Thoughtworks, a digital consultancy that integrates design, engineering and AI to transform enterprises to modern digital businesses. She leads digital transformations for her clients with strategic combinations of design thinking, change management, experimentation, and platform architecture. Her most recent focus is architecting agentic enterprises while applying systems thinking for responsible AI. Previously, she was Chief Architect at edX, driving intentional architecture for the next generation of large-scale online learning. Nimisha also serves as advisor and board member to emerging businesses, including serving as a consulting CTO. She began her career in Boston-based technology startups and holds multiple degrees from MIT. A seasoned technologist, Nimisha is passionate about fostering innovation through the amplification of diverse voices and the synergism of collective strength.
