Keynote Talk

Takaaki Mizuno

Director / Software Architect
Genki Labs Pte. Ltd., Singapore

Talk title:
Beyond the Language Barrier: The Future of Multicultural Project Teams in the Age of AI

Abstract

Generative AI is rapidly changing the way we work. In software development and research, AI is already taking over much of the work that once required a lot of time or knowledge, and this trend will not be reversed. The human role is shifting toward design, decision-making, and creating the conditions for AI to produce high-quality results. In this new way of working, the ability to put knowledge into words and share it within a team is becoming more important, and the pace of change requires us to keep adapting.

At the same time, relying on AI brings new risks. As AI takes over routine work, people have fewer chances to build experience, and it becomes harder to judge whether an AI's output is actually correct. To use AI well, we need to understand its results and be able to explain them in our own words.

AI is very good at solving technical challenges, but adaptive challenges, which require people to change their own habits and assumptions, remain our own responsibility. One such challenge is culture. For multicultural project teams, the language barrier has long been one of the biggest obstacles, and AI is now removing much of it. However, communication depends not only on language but also on cultural context. Differences in how people say no, give feedback, or treat deadlines remain even when every word is translated correctly. When these gaps go unnoticed, people may see bad intentions that do not exist, or look down on each other.

Based on more than 15 years of experience in developing software and managing multicultural teams, the speaker will discuss how engineers and researchers can use AI while continuing to build their own expertise, and how teams can overcome cultural barriers by questioning their own "common sense" and talking openly about their differences.

Biography

Takaaki Mizuno is a software developer based in Singapore. After completing his graduate studies at the University of Tokyo, he built software and led development teams at Hatena, Baidu, and DeNA, and set up development operations in Vietnam and Singapore. He moved to Singapore in 2014 and now runs Genki Labs Pte. Ltd., where he works as a hands-on technical partner to startups and product companies in Japan and Southeast Asia.

He helps teams decide what to build, supports projects that have run into trouble, sets up engineering teams, bridges the gap between executives and developers, and coaches organizations in putting AI to practical use. He has written and translated more than thirty books for software developers, including Web API: The Good Parts and the Japanese editions of JavaScript: The Good Parts and The Programmer's Brain.