Abstract: AI for Sofware Engineering (AI4SE) is a rapidly growing area. This talk will describe a vision of the future of AI4SE. Specifically, how AI4SE can realize trustworthy and synergistic AI-powered bots that can work well with one another and software engineers. I will start by describing a vision of AI4SE bots transitioning from smart tools to smart workmates, exercising responsible autonomy as trustworthy assistants, peers, and even managers. They will be well integrated dynamically into evolving software engineering teams, where there will be synergistic bot-bot, human-bot, and human-human interactions. There will also be a new economy, regulations, and best practices surrounding the AI4SE bot market. The end result will be a symbiotic workforce of trustworthy, autonomous, intelligent bots and software engineers, enabling the creation and maintenance of higher-quality and increasingly more complex software at a much faster pace. I will end this talk by describing some directions and milestones that I believe will help realize this vision, along with a call to arms for AI4SE researchers in particular, and SE researchers in general, to join forces in making this vision a future reality.

Bio: David Lo is a Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Information Systems and Technology Cluster at the School of Computing and Information Systems, Singapore Management University. For nearly two decades, he has championed AI4SE, specifically demonstrating how AI – including data mining, machine learning, information retrieval, natural language processing, and search-based algorithms – can transform passive software engineering data stored in various software repositories into automation and insights. He has published 400+ AI4SE papers that have gathered 25k+ citations. He has won 20+ international awards, including the IEEE TCSE Distinguished Service award, two Test-of-Time (or Most Influential Paper) awards, and six ACM Distinguished Paper awards. He is an IEEE Fellow (for contributions to synergizing software engineering and data mining), Fellow of Automated Software Engineering (for significant and sustained contributions to the automated software engineering community), ACM Distinguished Member, and NRF Investigator (2023-28). He served as the PC Co-Chair of ASE’20 and is serving as a PC Co-Chair of ESEC/FSE’24 and ICSE’25. More information about him and his work can be found at: http://www.mysmu.edu/faculty/davidlo/.