Keynote: Marcos Kalinowski

AI-Driven Business Transformation: Engineering Effective Machine Learning and LLM-Enabled Systems

This keynote is a fusion of practical experience and academic innovation, offering a roadmap for navigating the complexities of Software Engineering for AI, also known as AI Engineering, and providing a glimpse into the challenges and opportunities in this dynamic field. The practical experiences are rooted in real-world intelligent systems developed at ExACTa PUC-Rio, an R&D lab renowned for its distinguished expertise in AI Engineering. These experiences include dozens of effective business deliveries and several international patents. The academic innovation perspective builds on AI Engineering research conducted at ExACTa PUC-Rio and recent findings published in major scientific conferences and journals. Based on these experiences and the latest research, the presentation will explore practical and agile approaches to engineering business-effective AI systems, covering the entire development lifecycle from the initial idea to assessing the industrial impact. Particular emphasis will be placed on aligning business expectations and on the idiosyncrasies of engineering software solutions that incorporate Machine Learning (ML) and Large Language Models (LLM) components. Intended for professionals and researchers alike, the keynote will include practical advice for engineering ML and LLM-enabled systems and set the stage for exploring future research avenues.

Marcos Kalinowski, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)

Marcos Kalinowski is a professor of Software Engineering at PUC-Rio's Department of Informatics. His research focuses on Empirical Software Engineering, Requirements Engineering, Software Engineering for AI, and Software Quality. He is one of the founders and coordinators of the ExACTa PUC-Rio lab, where he leads several R&D projects with industry partners and supervises MS and DSc research. He holds a research productivity distinction from the Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). He is a member of the International Software Engineering Research Network (ISERN) and is deeply involved in international research collaborations. Prior to his academic career, he accumulated over ten years of experience in the software industry, working in roles ranging from developer to director. He serves as senior advisor to the Brazilian software quality initiative MPS.BR. His research has received several international honors and awards and is available in publications at the main scientific software engineering conferences and journals. He serves the community as editor of the In-Practice track and editorial board member of the Journal of Systems and Software and as part of the organizing and program committees of several international conferences, including serving as general co-chair of ICSE 2026, to be held in Rio de Janeiro.

Professor of Software Engineering at the Department of Informatics of PUC-Rio.