Annie Vella is an engineering leader and researcher focused on AI adoption, governing agentic systems at scale, and what happens to software engineering as the craft changes. Until recently she was a Distinguished Engineer at Westpac New Zealand, where she shaped the bank's approach to AI strategy, governance and adoption. With over 20 years across startups, scale-ups and large enterprises in four countries, she has spent two decades on both sides of the engineer/manager pendulum. Her Master of Engineering research examined how professional software engineers experience the impact of AI coding assistants. Having fallen for computers when she got a Commodore 64 at age six, Annie has cared about the craft ever since - and through her writing and speaking, aims to help engineers and leaders find joy and pride in the work ahead.