Moving away from Agile: What's Next – Martin Harrysson & Natasha Maniar, McKinsey & Company
Dec 12, 2025 · 21:55
McKinsey's Martin Harrysson and Natasha Maniar argue that enterprises must overhaul their people and operating models—moving beyond Agile to AI-native workflows—to capture the full potential of AI in software development. They identify bottlenecks like work allocation, manual code review, and tech debt that limit gains to 5-15% despite promising individual productivity stories. To scale, they advocate AI-native workflows (spec-driven development, continuous planning) and AI-native roles (smaller pods of 3-5 with consolidated roles). In a client study with a bank, interventions led to 60x increase in agent consumption, 51% increase in code mergers, and faster delivery tied to business priorities. They emphasize change management: 70% of companies haven't changed roles, and top performers invest in hands-on upskilling, measurement systems that track outcomes beyond adoption, and incentives to drive adoption.
