Into the Hopper

In a role reversal, my friend and former colleague Brenton Mallon interviews me about my life, from growing up in West Virginia to my winding path through grad school, data science, and beyond.

I sit down with Till Döhmen, AI Lead at MotherDuck, to explore the evolving landscape of AI-assisted SQL generation. Till brings a unique perspective from his PhD research in databases and his work building AI features at MotherDuck, the serverless data warehouse built on DuckDB.
We discuss how text-to-SQL has matured from academic benchmarks to practical tools, the importance of documentation and schema context for agents, and the emerging role of MCP servers and skills in customizing agent behavior. Till shares insights on building trust in agent-generated queries, why thinking about what a new hire would need to know helps you build better AI workflows, and how agents are reshaping the analyst's role from SQL writing to question refinement.

Links

Ben's Twitter

[Ben’s Website]https://econoben.dev/)

WorkHelix

What Are AI Agents - O'Reilly Book

Managing Memory for AI Agents - O'Reilly Book

Bead Development Tool

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In this episode of Into the Hopper, Tim talks with Ben Labishin from WorkHelix about AI agents and their impact on software development. Ben discusses AI memory management, practical strategies for using large language models, and the evolving role of developers in the age of AI. The conversation also addresses the balance between automation and foundational skills for junior engineers, offering valuable insights for professionals navigating this transformative landscape.

Find out more at podcast.tdhopper.com.

Find out more at podcast.tdhopper.com.