How Coinbase scaled AI to 1,000+ engineers | Chintan Turakhia

Chintan Turakhia is Senior Director of Engineering at Coinbase, where he’s led the transformation of a 1,000-plus-engineer organization to embrace AI tools at scale. When tasked with rewriting Coinbase’s self-custody wallet into a consumer social app in just six to nine months, Chintan turned to AI as a force multiplier. His team has achieved remarkable efficiency gains, including reducing PR review times from 150 hours to just 15 hours, and dramatically compressing the cycle from user feedback to shipped features. *What you’ll learn:* 1. How to drive AI adoption in large, established engineering organizations 2. The “speed run” technique that got 100 engineers to push 70 PRs in 15 minutes 3. How to identify and replicate the behaviors of AI power users 4. Why engineering leaders must get hands-on with AI tools to drive adoption 5. How to build custom AI agents that integrate with your existing workflows 6. The metrics that actually matter when measuring AI’s impact on engineering velocity 7. How to compress the cycle from user feedback to shipped features *Brought to you by:* WorkOS—Make your app enterprise-ready today: https://workos.com?utm_source=lennys_howiai&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=q22025 Rovo—AI that knows your business: https://rovo.com/ *In this episode, we cover:* (00:00) Introduction to Chintan (02:38) How Coinbase approached rewriting their app with AI assistance (08:00) The importance of leadership conviction and hands-on demonstration (10:30) The “PR speed run” technique that transformed team adoption (17:57) Measuring success (19:20) Demo: Real-time feedback-to-feature implementation (23:14) Using Cursor to analyze AI adoption patterns (33:15) Quick recap and appreciation (36:00) Demo: Building a live feedback capture system using AI transcription (40:50) Using custom Slack bots to automate engineering workflows (47:10) Advice for driving AI adoption within your organization (50:00) Personal use case: AI for wine selection based on taste preferences (55:23) Lightning round and final thoughts *Detailed workflow walkthroughs from this episode:* • How I AI: Chintan Turakhia’s Playbook for AI Adoption at Coinbase: https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/playbook-for-ai-engineering-adoption-at-coinbase • Use ChatGPT to Become Your Own Personal Wine Sommelier: https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/workflows/use-chatgpt-to-become-your-own-personal-wine-sommelier • Build an Automated User Feedback to Pull Request Pipeline: https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/workflows/build-an-automated-user-feedback-to-pull-request-pipeline • Create a Data-Driven AI Adoption Playbook Using Cursor: https://www.chatprd.ai/how-i-ai/workflows/create-a-data-driven-ai-adoption-playbook-using-cursor *Tools referenced:* • Cursor: https://cursor.sh/ • Linear: https://linear.app/ • Slack: https://slack.com/ • ChatGPT: https://chat.openai.com/ • Claude: https://claude.ai/ • GitHub Copilot: https://github.com/features/copilot *Other references:* • Coinbase: https://www.coinbase.com/ • React Native: https://reactnative.dev/ • How custom GPTs can make you a better manager | Hilary Gridley (Head of Core Product at Whoop): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-custom-gpts-can-make-you-a-better-manager *Where to find Chintan Turakhia:* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chintanturakhia/ X: https://x.com/chintanturakhia Base App (formerly Coinbase Wallet): https://base.app/ *Where to find Claire Vo:* ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/ Website: https://clairevo.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/ X: https://x.com/clairevo _Production and marketing by https://penname.co/._ _For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co._

Claire VohostChintan Turakhiaguest

Mar 2, 202658mWatch on YouTube ↗

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Coinbase’s playbook for scaling AI adoption across 1,000+ engineers

Chintan Turakhia explains how Coinbase moved from superficial AI trials ("hello world" usage that didn’t stick) to sustained adoption across 1,000+ engineers by treating AI as an “adapt or die” accelerant rather than a mandate.
The approach centered on a high-conviction, hands-on leader demonstrating real wins, focusing first on eliminating engineering toil (tests, linting, PR setup) and creating social proof via shared channels and live “PR speed runs.”
He emphasizes measuring impact through end-to-end cycle time—ticket to production/user value—then compressing each stage (draft PR creation, review time, release) to unlock customer feedback loops.
The episode also demos practical systems: using Cursor analytics to cohort users and generate a playbook, and an internal Slack/Linear agent (“Claude Bot”) that turns live feedback into tickets and PRs while meeting security requirements.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

AI adoption fails when it’s trialed, not operationalized.

Coinbase saw early Copilot/tool adoption spikes that faded because engineers tried it once, found it lacking, and wrote it off. The fix was persistent, daily use until repeatable workflows emerged.

A single credible, hands-on champion can change the culture faster than policy.

Chintan argues leaders must “show, not tell” by using the tools in real coding work, learning failure modes, and demonstrating concrete wins—engineers ignore decrees but follow evidence.

Start with soul-sucking toil to create immediate trust and pull demand.

Targeting unit tests, linting, and other “paper cut” tasks made AI valuable quickly and freed engineers to do higher-leverage work, building momentum for broader use.

Create viral visibility of wins (and losses) inside existing communication hubs.

A dedicated channel (“cursor-wins”) let engineers broadcast successes, prompting peers to copy techniques. Keeping the magic in Slack makes it observable and shareable, driving organic spread.

Time-boxed “PR speed runs” convert skepticism into belief in minutes.

By having everyone ship a trivial PR during an all-hands, teams experienced a rapid, tangible output spike (e.g., 70 PRs in 15 minutes; later 300–400 PRs in 30 minutes company-wide), making velocity real and undeniable.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

It’s not only possible, it’s adapt or die.

— Chintan Turakhia

Show the engineers, not just tell. And the worst thing any eng leader could do is just be like, 'I decree you must use AI.'

— Chintan Turakhia

No one’s getting bonus points for memorizing Git commands.

— Claire Vo

It was really sort of a death to status updates, long live building moment.

— Chintan Turakhia

My calendar’s empty… the coordination overhead… No, you just do things.

— Chintan Turakhia

Making AI adoption “stick” in large orgsHands-on leadership vs mandatesToil-first use cases (tests, linting, PR creation)PR speed runs and social proof in SlackMeasuring impact: ticket-to-user cycle timeCursor analytics cohorting and playbooksInternal agents: Slack + Linear + MCP integrations

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