Insights from our executive roundtable on AI and engineering productivity

Improving engineering productivity is crucial to the work we do at Dropbox. The more quickly we can deliver high-quality features to our customers, the more value they can get from our products. This rapid iteration has been key to developing tools like Dropbox Dash, context-aware AI that connects to all your work apps, so you can search, ask questions about, and organize all your content. In the process of building Dash, we’ve become big adopters of AI tools in our own work, from Claude Code to Cursor. The early results have been promising, but there are still a lot of open questions about how to work with these tools most effectively and where they can have the most impact.

To push this conversation forward, Dropbox CTO Ali Dasdan hosted an executive roundtable on December 11, 2025, at our San Francisco studio. We brought together a small group of technology leaders from top companies for an afternoon of open discussion, idea-sharing, and a deep dive into the evolving world of engineering productivity and AI.

The event began with Uma Namasivayam, Senior Director of Engineering Productivity, sharing how Dropbox has been thinking through the challenges and opportunities of integrating AI into our engineering workflows. She highlighted our experimentation, adoption, and enablement cycle to accelerate engineering productivity with AI.

We started by working with Dropbox leadership to gain buy-in and establish the importance of AI tooling. Together, we made AI adoption a company-level priority. This turned AI from a grassroots experiment into an urgent organizational priority, and helped everyone get aligned. Teams were now empowered to experiment with tooling, and we reduced the overhead associated with adopting new technologies.

One of the key insights from the roundtable was that adopting AI tooling for the sake of AI is meaningless; it must be tied to tangible business results. As we navigate this shift, we’ve had to ask ourselves: Which approach is the right one? What existing processes need to be upgraded in light of AI workflows?

Participants discussed the importance of balancing automation with human oversight. While AI tools can significantly speed up certain tasks, they also require careful management to ensure accuracy and alignment with business goals. The roundtable emphasized the need for continuous evaluation and refinement of AI-driven processes to maximize their impact.

Another critical topic was the role of AI in fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing within engineering teams. Tools like Claude Code and Cursor have the potential to streamline communication and reduce duplication of effort. However, their effectiveness depends on how well they are integrated into existing workflows and how much they are adopted by team members.

The roundtable also explored the challenges of training teams to work effectively with AI tools. As these tools become more sophisticated, it’s essential to invest in education and development to ensure that engineers can leverage them to their fullest potential. This includes understanding the limitations of AI and knowing when to rely on human judgment.

In addition to these discussions, attendees shared their own experiences with AI in engineering productivity. Some companies reported significant improvements in speed and quality after adopting AI-driven tools. Others highlighted the difficulties in integrating these tools into complex workflows and the need for ongoing support and customization.

Overall, the executive roundtable provided valuable insights into the evolving landscape of engineering productivity and AI. While the early results of AI adoption at Dropbox have been promising, the event underscored the importance of continuous learning, collaboration, and adaptation as we strive to maximize the potential of these tools. By fostering a culture of experimentation and open dialogue, we can better understand how AI can drive innovation and help us deliver even more value to our customers.