From Watching to Doing: Using AI and Mixed Reality to Get Jobs Done

Disclaimer: Women Devs SG is a community to encourage more women to excel in their tech careers. As such, if you are a male, only attend if another woman can accompany you 🙏🏼

“What does it look like when software stops living only on screens and starts interacting with the physical world?”

Most software engineers are familiar with building systems that respond to clicks, APIs, and events. But a new class of systems is emerging where software also sees, understands, and acts in the real world. This talk introduces that shift in an accessible, developer friendly way.

We will explore how modern AI systems connect perception (like images and language) to real world actions, and how developers design feedback loops where machines can observe, decide, and act. Using simple examples from robotics and manufacturing, we will break down complex ideas into familiar software concepts like event loops, state, and orchestration.

In this session, you will learn:
* How “sense think act” systems map to patterns software engineers already know
* How computer vision and language models are combined to drive real world actions
* How XR can be used as a developer interface to monitor and guide intelligent systems
* What kinds of engineering roles and skills are emerging in this space

No background in robotics or AI is required. This talk is designed to build intuition, not expertise, and to give you a broader view of where software engineering is heading beyond traditional web and backend systems.