Guerrilla InnerSource in an enterprise.

Bottom-up AI enablement while improving DevEx and collaboration

Many developers care about collaboration, AI enablement, and developer productivity. But do their companies really care? Despite the endless DevOps and developer productivity slide decks, not everyone has a strategy beyond “let’s buy a ChatGPT subscription and call us AI-first” or a classic “let’s have another weekly meeting” from management. Can a single engineer actually introduce InnerSource and get nice things tools to teams in a big enterprise? Maybe! Can they burn out in the process? Well, let’s talk…

We’ll discuss setting up InnerSource and an open contribution culture inside rigid corporate structures that are not willing to change. We all try to change companies first, and in 2025-2026, the ongoing AI hype can be a great leverage – a universal justification to form internal guilds, secure funding, and get executive attention for collaboration and productivity initiatives.

How to get started without a budget or official blessing? How to find allies and not burn too many bridges? What could possibly go right (sic!)? And how to show impact when everyone’s so obsessed with KPIs?