Can AI finally stop software knowledge decay?

Bill Doerrfeld | July 29, 2026

My latest for LeadDev interviews IBM's Neel Sundaresan on how to prevent a decades-old issue in software engineering.

What happens when your best engineer quits, and no one documented what they knew?


When developers leave, so does much of the context behind their decisions: the reasoning behind the codebase and architecture, and why things were built a certain way.


Knowledge decay has plagued software teams for decades. But Neel Sundaresan thinks AI can finally help close this gap.


Today, I'm excited to share my interview with Neel, a legend in the software space who has been involved in innovative projects across IBM, Microsoft, and eBay.


We discussed why software knowledge traditionally decays, the downsides for engineering teams, and what it would actually take for AI coding agents to preserve the reasoning behind software development.


Some great thoughts in this one! Check it out on LeadDev.

Read: How to avoid knowledge decay in software engineering

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