People sometimes ask what Enterprise Architects actually do. The honest answer is: it depends on the week. Here is what 2025 looked like: strategy sessions that shape investment decisions for years, security scanners built in a weekend, architecture reviews that strengthen proposals, and AI tools rolled out to a thousand developers.

Strategy work

I was part of a large team working on a portfolio alignment program spanning multiple countries and hundreds of applications. My role was to bring the perspective of an IT service provider and the lens of IT architecture. The goal was to figure out which modernization investments would deliver value and which would preserve complexity under a new name. One data-driven recommendation, that a particular region’s portfolio was too risky to approve, might shape investment decisions for years. That is the high-leverage end of the job.

Technical work

I also spent time in code repositories, not just reviewing architecture diagrams. As a proof of concept, I built a security vulnerability scanner using an AI coding agent. It found and helped fix nine vulnerabilities in one system, four of them critical. Total cost to scan ten repositories: about eight dollars. That is useful, but the real value comes when this scales to more vulnerability types and hundreds of repositories. Sometimes the most useful thing an architect can do is build a tool that others can run.

Trench work

A lot of architecture is document review. Reading proposals, catching errors, pushing back when a whitepaper is more marketing than substance. Nobody celebrates this work, but without it, bad ideas propagate. I reviewed dozens of papers this year. Some were good. Some needed to be stopped.

Adoption work

I helped roll out Claude Code to over a thousand developers and presented it to several hundred colleagues at internal events. Watching people discover what AI coding tools can do, and then actually use them, was one of the highlights of the year.

Pattern recognition

After enough reviews, you start noticing what recurs. Tool proliferation: a new system for every regulation. Manual workarounds replacing integration. The tension between wanting to innovate and wanting to control. These patterns matter more than any single project.

On AI and architects

AI has changed how I work. I used it to scan for vulnerabilities, automate pull request reviews, analyze application portfolios, and write documentation faster. It made me more effective.

But AI replacing architects? Not yet. The judgment calls still require humans. Which assessment matters most. When to push back. How to deliver uncomfortable conclusions without losing the room. These are not problems a language model solves on its own.

Looking forward

2026 will bring new challenges. I am grateful to the many colleagues who made this year possible. You know who you are.

I’m wishing everyone a happy festive season, Merry Christmas, and a turn of the year full of hope.