The age of AI: the future of work and of programming

In this Prishtina Talks presentation, Rexhep Kqiku — founder, head of engineering, CTO and one of the pioneers of programming in Kosovo — sets out how artificial intelligence is changing the future of work and of programming. Starting from his own experience — the first programming teams after the war, the work at Volvo in Sweden, and his present role as CTO of the American company 91, which develops implantable devices for the heart — Kqiku arrives at a hard but argued thesis: programming as the craft of learning languages and writing code is disappearing, and surviving it is not a matter of knowing how to write code, but of having the mindset of an engineer who knows how to build systems.

The second half is a practical tour of AI in fields outside programming: Boris Eldagsen's winning picture at the Sony World Photography Awards, no-code platforms such as Webflow, Futexam preparing football agents for FIFA certification, platforms that read dental x-rays automatically, news articles generated from the spoken voice, and a real case from Kosovo with Adonis's automatic filter for car listings. It closes with a live demonstration of VR for safety training on high-rise construction.

Some of the points covered: 📌 The professional path: from post-war Kosovo to CTO of the American company 91 📌 The historical analogy: programmers have always automated other people's work 📌 AI agents, and what Eric Schmidt said about armies of them 📌 Building against monetising: why the products of technical people fail 📌 How a programmer survives: an engineering mindset, not only code 📌 Practical examples: art, sport, dentistry, journalism, construction

📍 Prishtina Talks