Heroku is offering a developer-centric approach that blends simplicity, scalability and strong architectural foundations to support fast, sustainable innovation, according to Vish Abrams, chief architect of Heroku from Salesforce Inc. Heroku’s foundational principle has always been to minimize the undifferentiated heavy lifting for developers. That ethos continues today, even as new paradigms such as AI agents, multicloud integration and “vibe coding” reshape the software landscape. The pressure to adapt quickly doesn’t mean complexity has to scale in parallel, according to Betty Junod, chief marketing officer of Heroku. Vibe coding introduces a new way to build software by turning natural language into code through AI. Heroku is responding with a modernized architecture approach, updating the Twelve-Factor App methodology to guide both developers and AI agents in creating scalable, maintainable applications, according to Abrams. This renewed focus on the developer experience is also driving a cultural shift — one that emphasizes human creativity alongside machine efficiency. As AI agents become more capable of generating and deploying code, developers are being asked to step further into roles that require design thinking, exception handling and strategic oversight. The future isn’t about replacing developers with automation but enabling them to work smarter within increasingly agent-augmented workflows.