How Our Benchmarks Led to a 25x MongoDB Performance Improvement
March 16, 2026 • Mike Smith
TechEmpower Framework Benchmarks Round 23 surfaced something unexpected: the Spring + MongoDB implementations were performing far worse than anyone anticipated. What initially looked like a benchmarking anomaly turned into a collaborative investigation with MongoDB’s performance engineering team. This post walks through what we found, how we tracked the issue down, and what it reveals about real-world framework performance and database interaction under load.
Product meets Engineering in the AI Era
March 13, 2026 • Tony Karrer
Product specs now have two audiences: people and AI agents. If your PMs aren’t using codebase-aware tools before handoff, you’re leaving speed on the table. Here’s what we’re seeing work.
Red Teaming Gen AI
February 12, 2026 • Tony Karrer
If you’re shipping LLM or RAG features, traditional QA isn’t enough. Adversarial testing, including prompt injection, data poisoning, and retrieval manipulation, is now table stakes for resilient AI.
Building Reliable Autonomous Agentic AI
January 12, 2026 • Tony Karrer
When AI agents can act, reliability becomes architecture. A practical guide to building agentic systems that don’t run away, break trust, or rely on prompt magic.
Webinar – AI Coding Tool Metrics: DORA and CTOs Deep Dive
December 3, 2025 • Tony Karrer
AI coding tools promise major productivity gains, but measuring their true impact is harder than it looks. Join TechEmpower’s Tony Karrer, a DORA researcher and two CTOs for insights on the metrics that matter. Jan 9, 8–10 AM PST
AI Coding Tools Metrics
December 1, 2025 • Tony Karrer
Everyone’s asking whether AI tools are delivering “30% productivity gains.” They can, but only after adoption matures. Early wins hide in debugging, comprehension, and better requirements, not in lines of code.
Webinar – Leveraging AI Tooling Across Your Software Development Lifecycle
November 7, 2025 • Alan Laser
AI is reshaping how software gets built. Join TechEmpower and O’Reilly author Brent Laster for a practical session on integrating AI tools across your SDLC—from planning to deployment.
2-week spike to ramp up on AI Coding Tools
October 23, 2025 • Tony Karrer
Discover the key to successful AI coding assistant implementation with a 2-week ramp-up spike. Learn about focused training, hands-on ticket work, and feedback loops that accelerate proficiency and build shared practices.
Announcing TechEmpower’s AI Developer Bootcamp
October 6, 2025 • Alan Laser
We’re launching the TechEmpower AI Developer Bootcamp! This 6–12 week program is designed as a pipeline into the AI job market: you’ll build real-world LLM applications, collaborate with senior engineers, and graduate with a portfolio project you can showcase to employers. Next cohort starts Oct 20. Scholarships and discounts available.
Real-time Monitoring of LLM-Based Applications
October 2, 2025 • Tony Karrer
Behind every “mystery spike” in an LLM app is a missing metric. This roundup covers the best guides on cost, latency, and monitoring practices in 2025.
AI Update
July 2, 2025 • Alan Laser
News articles, insights, and industry updates that we find valuable.