The Future of Software in Bulgaria Through the Eyes of EPAM 

The Future of Software in Bulgaria Through the Eyes of EPAM 

In an interview for Darik Radio, Vladimir Natchev, Senior Director and Country Head at EPAM Systems Bulgaria, spoke about how AI is changing the role of software engineers, where the technology creates the most value, what EPAM's approach looks like and how Bulgaria's IT sector is evolving. 

From AI assistants to autonomous systems

The first wave of AI in the software industry was mostly about assistants, tools that help engineers write code, find solutions and work more efficiently. The next step, however, is something much bigger: autonomous AI systems, often called AI agents.

These systems don't just support a specialist on a single task. They can independently carry out entire steps of a process.

"What every industry is aiming for is building processes with autonomous steps, carried out with the help of artificial intelligence," Vladimir explains.

This model is often described as an "AI factory," a system where different AI agents handle separate tasks, and the output of one step becomes the input for the next. Instead of AI being simply a tool in a person's hands, it is gradually becoming part of the workflow itself.

For EPAM, this isn't just a concept. We apply AI solutions in our own organization first, becoming what we call "client zero." That way, technologies can be tested in a real environment, and the experience we gain, both what works and where the challenges are, feeds directly into the solutions we build for clients.

What does this mean for engineers?

The rise of AI is also changing the role of the software engineer. That doesn't mean people become less important. On the contrary, the focus is gradually shifting from writing code itself toward understanding the problem, designing solutions and managing the systems behind them.

"Writing code was never the hardest part of the job. Once we know what code needs to be written, AI has largely already solved that problem," says Vladimir.

Listen to the full interview here.
Interested in finding your next career? Check out our available openings at https://www.epam.com/careers