Gio Scalzo
AI & Engineering Lead
NewDay
Gio Scalzo is a London-based AI and engineering lead at NewDay and CTO of a set of consumer AI apps, including Pocket Sommelier (AI wine pairing) and the AI-driven wellness apps Neurona and Selena. A published author of seven books, he spends much of his time exploring what happens when AI meets real engineering work. He speaks regularly at communities such as NSLondon and Londroid and, more recently, at the LDX3 New York conference, ships AI products, and is especially interested in the gap between impressive demos and messy production reality.
Just One More Prompt: Why Agentic Coding Hooks Us
Keynote
Coding agents have made starting things almost effortless.
Finishing them has not got any easier.
While one agent thinks, we open another, then another, and the phone brings the next session to dinner, to the weekend and to bed.
Many of us now have more projects underway than ever, and fewer of them done.
This talk looks at why.
Drawing on Natasha Dow Schüll's research with machine gamblers in Las Vegas, it maps the mechanics that keep people playing (unpredictable rewards, near misses, the bonus round, betting on every line) onto the everyday experience of agentic coding, and examines what that pull costs us in fulfilment, energy and attention.
Then it turns to what works.
Three practical techniques, adapted from gambling harm-reduction and social-media research, help developers and teams set limits before a session starts, keep the agents out of their pocket, and decide which w tools deserve their time.
Less spinning, more finishing.