Thanks to AI, designers and PMs are now prototyping and deploying faster than ever, sometimes without writing a single line of code. Tools like Lovable, Bolt and others can generate entire applications directly from prompts, while design tools are blurring the lines between mockups and implementation. So where does that leave React engineers?

As AI tools become UI builders, one trend is clear: React is becoming their default output. It's quickly turning into the universal framework of AI, putting React developers at risk of seeing their core skills commoditized.

In a world where AI can generate impressive UIs and ship entire components from a single prompt, it's tempting to declare the death of frontend engineering.

But what if we're just looking at it wrong?

The pixel-pushing days may be over, but the complexity is just shifting layers. Welcome to the age of the back of the frontend. This talk explores how AI is fragmenting the frontend into fast, flashy outputs and deeply nuanced logic, and why the real value now lies beneath the surface.

We'll break down what's actually being automated (spoiler: it's not the hard stuff), the logic, flows, edge cases, performance, that's still on us. We'll examine where human acuity still matters, why knowing when not to use AI might be your new superpower, and how the integration of AI-generated React components into complex, multi-framework applications creates new engineering challenges.

This talk doesn't shy away from the uncomfortable question: what is your job when everyone can "build"?

If you're a frontend dev wondering whether you still have a job, you do. But it may not look the same as the one you trained for. The new frontier isn't just building components, but designing the systems that allow AI-generated components to function in the beautiful complexity of production applications.

Next.js is a great framework - until you want to deploy it somewhere that isn't Vercel. vinext is a Vite plugin from Cloudflare that reimplements the Next.js API surface from scratch, so your existing app runs everywhere with a single command. In this talk, we'll look at why this exists, how Cloudflare built it in a week using AI, and how close to "drop-in replacement" it actually gets.

Next.js is a great framework - until you want to deploy it somewhere that isn't Vercel. vinext is a Vite plugin from Cloudflare that reimplements the Next.js API surface from scratch, so your existing app runs everywhere with a single command. In this talk, we'll look at why this exists, how Cloudflare built it in a week using AI, and how close to "drop-in replacement" it actually gets.

Join Conor on a magical walk through a devtools Saas build with a cutting edge Next.js stack. He will discuss the different routes, design decisions, and tools considered and hopefully teach you some new things and invite you to challenge the choices he made.