How to Lead DevRel in the AI Era: Stop Playing It Safe

In a recent post on Dev.to, Rizèl Scarlett, a veteran Developer Relations leader, argues that the traditional DevRel playbook is failing in the face of the rapid AI boom. Scarlett suggests that companies often rely on safe, repetitive marketing strategies that fail to resonate with overwhelmed developers. Drawing on her experiences at GitHub and Block, she outlines six actionable strategies to remain relevant: staying hands-on with code, engaging in real-time ecosystem conversations, prioritizing high-velocity quality over perfectionism, hosting hands-on technical meetups, automating documentation pipelines for AI agent compatibility, and building authentic community relationships. Scarlett emphasizes that the key to modern DevRel is moving away from rigid templates and instead building in the open, taking creative risks, and treating community members as genuine collaborators. By shifting focus from sales-driven metrics to authentic engagement, DevRel teams can better support developers in an evolving technical landscape.