Jake Clark - AI-Native Engineering: Building Design Systems at Scale with AI
Details
Agentic AI is rapidly moving from experimentation into core engineering workflows. In this session, we’ll explore what it means to build AI-native frontend platforms — where AI isn’t bolted on for code generation, but embedded directly into the architecture that delivers your design system.
This talk focuses on building opinionated frontend tooling powered by structured AI workflows. We’ll look at how AI can participate in deterministic pipelines: ingesting design tokens, scaffolding components, generating tests, validating accessibility and performance, and producing documentation — all within guardrails that engineering teams trust.
You’ll see how structured AI workflows (including Model Context Protocol tooling) orchestrate multi-step flows safely and predictably — with defined contracts, validation loops, and human-in-the-loop checkpoints. The goal: faster component delivery, stronger design-to-code parity, and consistent standards across distributed teams.
Key takeaways:
- The practical difference between AI-assisted and AI-native engineering workflows
- Designing structured AI contracts with guardrails and deterministic outputs
- Orchestrating multi-step flows (token ingestion, scaffolding, test generation, documentation)
- Integrating with Figma for design token synchronisation
- Embedding accessibility and performance validation into AI-driven pipelines
Who Should Attend
Senior frontend engineers, design system advocates, platform engineers and engineering leaders responsible for developer productivity and UI governance.
Why It’s Worth Attending
You’ll get practical insight into how AI is being applied across modern engineering teams, plus the chance to connect with Manchester’s growing applied-AI community. Even without the final talk announced, these evenings consistently deliver useful ideas, honest discussion, and great conversations with people working on similar problems.
Agenda
18:30 – Doors, pizza & mingling
18:50 – Introductions
19:00 – Talk
19:40 – Q&A
19:50 – Open social & refreshments
20:30 – Close
Entry
Upon arrival at Accenture’s Manchester office
(2 Symphony Park, Circle Square, Manchester M1 7FS),
please check in at reception and you’ll be directed to the meetup.
Please note, attendees must show a form of ID on entry