JoDi
Published 3 min read

Hello, I'm Diogo: setting the tone for JoDi

By Diogo Gaião

My first post is all about understanding what JoDi is and why it exists. If you are curious, keep reading to find out.

Who I am

I’m Diogo, a Java tech lead with almost five years of experience. I became a tech lead this year, same year that agentic AI started spreading like wildfire. So instead of one new challenge, I had to face two: how to effectively be a tech lead, and how to be a tech lead in the AI era.

My team works mainly on a monolithic legacy CRM that is currently undergoing a migration to a microservices architecture. This 10+ year old brownfield was already a beast by itself; the migration is just the cherry on top. I lead a mostly junior team, which I am very proud of. We have come a long way this past year.

Then, AI knocked on our door. And like an uninvited guest, we were not ready for it. On the other hand, my career gained some (extra) traction. I joined a cross-company initiative for agentic AI adoption. I became a trainer, and have trained around 60 senior engineers on AI topics. I have investigated cutting-edge technology with amazing people and I have built some assets that are used by multiple teams and projects. This is mainly why we are here today.

How I got into AI

I started experimenting with AI when I first got into Claude Code earlier this year. Before that, I used to be skeptical about it. I mocked my previous tech lead for writing entire Java classes with ChatGPT. I didn’t trust GitHub Copilot. But something changed when I saw what Claude could do. AI was no longer extra horsepower; it was the car itself. My projects suddenly had a UI, and I was still able to be a backend enthusiast. This is where my perspective shifted. Building was no longer the bottleneck.

In the last few months, I have had the opportunity to work extensively with this technology, both professionally and personally. I have built multiple assets, most for me, some shared and reused. But mostly, I learned. The Diogo from almost a year ago who didn’t know what an agent was would be surprised by what I know today. That is the journey that I want to share with you.

Why write about it

Writing a blog is something that I have always wanted; I just hadn’t found the right topic yet. AI will be that topic, or at least the trigger. I’ve come to realize that the time that I have been spending with this new toy and what I have learned so far can be useful to people who haven’t spent the same amount of time using AI or who are just confused about how to navigate it.

This blog is firstly for me, and then for you. I am writing to learn, and hopefully, it might help someone that is facing the same problems and questions. If you are not bothered by this (jokingly) egoistic approach, this is the right place for you.

What you can expect

  • Things I build with AI. Write-ups on assets I developed or participated in: what went well, what didn’t and what I learned.
  • Experiments with models, agents and tools. Reports on tools I experiment with and how I used them and.
  • AI engineering from a Java developer’s point of view. Incorporating AI and Java (no, not Python).
  • Adapting as a tech lead. The impacts AI is bringing to my day-to-day role.

I won’t promise a posting cadence for now. I have a couple of posts in mind, and those will probably come out faster. After that, we will see how this goes.

Say hello

If anything sparks your curiosity or you simply want to discuss it, feel free to reach out. New posts go out through the RSS feed, and you can find me on the About page.