We're Introducing The New Default: Where AI Meets Software Development

The New Default is built for developers, product leaders, and engineering teams embracing the shift from AI-assisted to AI-native development. It's for those integrating AI into real workflows, both early adopters exploring new tools and organizations scaling production-grade AI solutions across their products and teams. 

The New Default: A New Way of Thinking about AI Development

We're proud to introduce The New Default, Monterail's project that combines an AI learning hub with a series of actionable insights and AI strategies. Our mission is simple: bridge the gap between AI theory and real-world engineering. The New Default shares actionable insights, best practices, and lessons from teams working on AI-enabled systems. Expect grounded guidance and inspiration rooted in hands-on experience.

What You'll Find Inside the New Default 

We've built The New Default on in-depth articles, tutorials, and technical research exploring how AI transforms modern engineering. What you will find is real conversations (not just curated content) featuring developers, researchers, and product teams shaping the next era of intelligent software. To cover the subject thoroughly, we've talked with executive product managers and chief product designers, digital founders, AI engineers, CEOs, and AI strategists and futurists.

Here's what we cover in The New Default:

AI-Driven Ideation

Insights on how to use generative AI for concept validation and product strategy from, among others, James Le Page, Director of Engineering AI, Automattic.

AI-Enhanced Design

Series on frameworks for AI-powered UX and co-creative interfaces based on interviews with Gillian Salerno-Rebic and Maria Burke, Founders of North + Form.

AI-Native Development

Talks on how to build and deploy with AI-integrated workflows with Oji Udezue, the Co-Author of ProductMind.

Smart Testing

Deep dive into automated validation and adaptive QA using AI with Chris Rickard, the Founder of UserDocs.

Sustainable Maintenance

Tactics for keeping AI-powered software reliable over time, delivered by Alan Buxton, CTO at Simfoni.

Why We Launched a Publication on AI in Software Development Just Now?

The short answer? Because the gap between AI theory and real-world software engineering is still too wide.

New AI research papers, models, and tools appear daily, but turning them into production-ready systems is another story. At Monterail, we've seen this gap firsthand: clients eager to experiment with AI but unsure how to apply it meaningfully in daily work.

A few recurring challenges have stood out:

• Fragmented knowledge: The best ideas are scattered across academic papers, GitHub repos, and social threads. Hard to find, harder to apply.

• Rapidly changing tools and frameworks: What's cutting-edge today can feel outdated tomorrow. Developers need a way to keep up without losing focus.

• Lack of practical integration insights: Many discussions stop at "what AI can do," but few go deep into "how to actually make it work" in real products.

That's where the New Default comes in. It closes the loop between AI research, experimentation, and real-world application. We've combined thought leadership, hands-on experience, and insights from the frontlines of AI-enabled software development. 

We're sharing The New Default with you because we want this knowledge to be accessible, applicable, and actionable. 

Where AI Meets Real-World Impact: Join the New Default

For Monterail, the New Default is a natural extension of our mission: helping organizations design, build, and scale software that drives industries forward. 

That's precisely why we've built The New Default, a learning hub based on an AI-experienced community willing to share their know-how. It's a place where insights meet practice, combining research and collaboration to help teams turn AI potential into tangible results.

Visit the New Default and join the community shaping the future of AI-driven development.