Just like last year on my birthday, I want to take the time to look back at 2025. It also happened to be the year this site turned 10 – although I’ve been blogging across various websites for over two decades now (wow!). After a challenging 2024 and returning to running Explosion as a self-sufficient company, this year was mostly focused on stablising things and getting back into hands-on development work.

Conferences and talks

After a very busy conference year in 2024, I tried to say yes to slightly fewer events this time. I still ended up doing a couple of keynotes and talks, had fun writing some new material and designing new slides, and even hosted a small meetup in Berlin with my friend Hugo.

• Keynotes: PyCon+Web · ECONDAT · PyCon Ireland
• Talks: data:unplugged · Google Developer Groups · PyCon DE & PyData · PyBerlin · PyData London · Build with AI · Humboldt University Berlin · Bitkom
• Roundups & Highlights: Darmstadt (PyCon & PyData) · London (ECONDAT, PyData) · Berlin (Build with AI) · Amsterdam (PyData) · Ireland (PyCon)

• Building AI with AI
  AI-powered coding assistants have transformed the way we build software – and they can be even more impactful for AI development itself. In this talk, I show you why we should use LLMs to build systems instead of as systems, and why code and the open-source ecosystem is more important than ever, not less.
• Conquering PDFs: document understanding beyond plain text
  In this talk, I present a new and modular approach for building robust document understanding systems, using state-of-the-art models and the awesome Python ecosystem. I’ll show you how you can go from PDFs to structured data and even build fully custom information extraction pipelines for your specific use case.
• What the history of the web can teach us about the future of AI
  In this talk, I show you what the history of the web can teach us about the future of artificial intelligence, and what this means for developers, models, open source and regulation.
• Applied NLP in the Age of Generative AI: Future-Proof Strategies for Banking and Finance
  In this talk, I share the most important lessons we’ve learned from solving real-world information extraction problems in industry, and show you a new approach and mindset for designing robust and modular NLP pipelines in the age of Generative AI.
• KI zwischen Freiheit und Kontrolle: The AI Revolution Will Not Be Monopolized
  How should we envision the use of AI in practice? And are we heading further into a black box era with larger and larger models, obscured behind APIs controlled by big tech monopolies? (German)
• Künstliche Intelligenz: Technologie der Zukunft – und warum Open Source die Karten neu mischt
  DeepSeek recently shook up the AI ​​market with groundbreaking benchmarks. Is this a model for Europe, and where might AI and open source be headed? (German)
• Industrial-Strength Natural Language Processing with spaCy and Prodigy
  Guest lecture at Humboldt University Berlin, covering introductions to spaCy and Prodigy, as well as use cases and strategies for applied NLP in industry.

View all talks Calendar

Interviews and discussions

• KI ohne Ketten: Warum Open Source gegen Big Tech gewinnen kann (UNMUTE IT)
• AI in Reality Fireside Chat: Enterprise AI & Open-Source Innovation (PyCon DE)
• Developer Trends in 2025 (TalkPython)
• Souveräne KI-Systeme statt Blackbox-Lösungen (it-daily)
• Wie Künstliche Intelligenz IT-Kompetenzen neu sortiert (connect professional)
• AI and its Impact (PyCon Ireland)

Blog posts and writing

• What the history of the web can teach us about the future of AI (January, Explosion)
• Making beautiful slides for your talks, part 3: Technical content (February)
• How Love Without Sound helps the music industry recover millions in revenue for artists with NLP, spaCy and Prodigy (March, Explosion)
• How to advocate for modular NLP in the age of Generative AI (March, Explosion)
• Making beautiful slides for your talks, part 4: Design elements and inspiration (April)
• Making beautiful slides for your talks, part 5: Sharing your presentations (April)
• Making beautiful slides for your talks, part 6: Community showcase (August)
• Making beautiful slides for your talks, part 7: Resources and tools list (August)

P.S.: I’m also continuously updating my guide to Berlin with new places and tips! If you’re visiting or new to the city, check out my (obviously very biased) selection.

Community and connections

In April, my friend Katharine Jarmul and I started the Feminist AI LAN Party initiative: a safe, inclusive and hacker-oriented space for experimenting with the intersection of feminism and artificial intelligence. All materials are published open source, free for anyone in the community to use and adapt for their own parties. We hosted our first big event at PyCon DE & PyData in Darmstadt, Germany, with workshops on hacking LLMs and data development, as well as an oldschool DIY zine making station. I’m looking forward to more events (and zines!) in 2026, and we’re already planning another Feminist AI lounge for the upcoming PyCon DE.

Focus of my work and vision

🔮 using LLMs to build systems instead of as systems 🔮 strategies for breaking down complex business problems into modular machine learning solutions 🔮 AI-powered coding and development assistants 🔮 practical MCP servers for developers 🔮 making “vibe NLP” work 🔮 distilling Large Language Models into smaller, task-specific components 🔮 generative AI for structured data 🔮 end-to-end document processing beyond plain text 🔮 LLM minimalism 🔮 raising the ceiling 🔮

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Personal

This year, I was finally able to take a little time off! In May, we visited Sardinia with my best friend, and I discovered the joys of hiking after completing a beautiful 10km tour along to coast to Cala Luna. In October, I then spent 3 weeks in Australia with my family. I briefly lived there in 2021, including 6 months in Melbourne, and it was great and a little nostalgic to be back in our old neighbourhood in Collingwood. If you’re interested in some of my tips and recommendations for eating, drinking and shopping, I put together a small guide and map for Melbourne and Sydney.

While in Sydney, I also got to see one of my favourite tattoo artists, Onnie O’Leary (link possibly NSFW), again. I’ve been collecting art on my body since I was 19 and while it feels weird to think of it as a “hobby”, it’s certainly something I love and am passionate about. Other artists I saw in 2025 include Sarah Etheridge in Melbourne, and of course my local neighbourhood tattooer and friend Guen Douglas in Berlin.

My concert highlight this year was Patrick Wolf, one of my all-time favourite artists (I first saw him live all the way back in 2007). He also released a great new album this year, which I had on heavy rotation, alongside some of his older records. (My Spotify Wrapped correctly guessed my listening age, since I apparently play a lot of music from the 2000s.)