Professionals from IAS and Rent the Runway explore the impact AI has had on organisational R&D. For Mark Walsh, director of engineering at Rent the Runway, technological advancement in R&D is among the most influential trends changing the landscape for experts working in research. He told SiliconRepublic.com, “Dare I say it, the most exciting, volatile and frankly uncertain trend is the rapid evolution of AI. Smirnov finds that many teams are adopting new workflows and increasingly embedding LLMs or agentic workflows during development and operational support. Although agents can generate code in seconds, developers must thoroughly understand how that code works under the hood.