Giant Robots: thoughtbot Blog

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Modernising legacy systems in UK banking and financial services

Software modernisation in banking and finance goes beyond replacing old code. It’s about navigating a risk-averse environment to transform everything from processes to culture. Here’s what we’ve learned about making it all work.
Bethan Ashley, Rob Whittaker, Sami Birnbaum & Michelle Taute
November 12, 2026
- Finance
- AI
- Compliance
NWRUG's (Manchester, UK) November 2026 meeting — (Un)learning programming

Hear Sam Péchèr reflect on starting out as a junior just as the industry shifted to not writing code at NWRUG this month.
Rob Whittaker
November 9, 2026
- Rails
- Ruby
- Community
- Events
Who's reading the code your AI writes?

AI makes you at least 30% faster on new code and 10% faster on old code. It also makes it easier to ship bugs, security flaws, and data leaks before anyone notices.
Ran Craycraft
October 23, 2026
- AI
- Security
- Development
- News
Design systems in an AI era; what changes when everyone can build?

Does a design system still belong in Figma? Do I still need a design system? Is Figma even still relevant in today’s world as a designer?
Andrew Spencer, Dave Iverson, Moses Amama & Bethan Ashley
October 20, 2026
- AI Design
- Design System
- Design
- Claude Code
- AI
A pragmatic guide to AI-assisted development

Learn how I use AI-assisted development to understand, ship, and verify a real fix.
Steve Polito
October 19, 2026
- Agents
- AI
- Process
- Development
What causes AI fatigue for engineers and how to ease the strain

AI fatigue is setting in for engineering teams. Our research shows most feel pressure to assess every AI trend, struggle to evaluate tools, and wrestle with evaluating AI-generated code. Here’s some practical advice for navigating the pain points.
Richard Newman and Michelle Taute
October 6, 2026
- Development
- AI
We built an AI product consultant and the free beta is now open

Announcing the ReadySetGo beta! An AI-assisted sprint that helps you quickly determine what product to build, with real research pulled in as you go. For a limited time, it’s free to use.
Lindsey Christensen
October 2, 2026
- Readysetgo
- AI
- News
NWRUG's (Manchester, UK) October 2026 meeting — It's time to bin your VCR

Learn about imperfectly better ways to stub your external requests with Rob Whittaker at NWRUG this month.
Rob Whittaker
October 2, 2026
- Rails
- Ruby
- Community
- Events
We’re bringing two roundtables to the London CPO Conference

Join us on October 29th - we’re hosting two roundtables on Product leadership in the AI era
Maria Filimonova
October 1, 2026
Respecting your users' dread of the clankers

Some design and strategy techniques to protect PII and respect people’s desire to opt out of AI.
Dave Iverson
September 30, 2026
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