KotlinConf’26 Speakers: In Conversation with Josh Long | The Kotlin Blog

Josh Long, the first Spring Developer Advocate since 2010, reflects on the evolution of the Spring ecosystem from traditional enterprise applications to microservices and AI-powered services, emphasizing the growth and adaptability of the community. He highlights Kotlin's natural fit for Spring due to its expressive language and the collaborative efforts between the Spring and Kotlin teams, which have resulted in seamless integrations and enhanced developer experiences. Long notes that the JVM's performance and scalability make it an excellent platform for developing modern applications, including AI integrations, which often require efficient communication with existing systems. He underscores the importance of integration in successful AI projects and suggests that extending existing JVM-based services with tools like Spring AI and Kotlin can lead to more effective outcomes. Josh will further explore these themes in his talk at KotlinConf’26, emphasizing the synergy between Kotlin and Spring Boot for a more productive development experience.