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I Watched All of Atlassian Team 25 So You Don't Have to (Part 1)

May 6, 2025

I realize I’m a little late to the party with this. I did watch the keynotes live, but didn’t have a chance to go back and watch everything else until this week. Being unemployed is surprisingly time-consuming.

It was a lot of content, so I’m going to break this up into three posts. This is the first one and will focus on the three keynotes. These are just my stream-of-consciousness bullet points that I wrote as I was watching. Very little has been done to clean them up or format them.

Founder Keynote

  • Mike Cannon-Brookes
    • Fortune magazine ranked Atlassian #1 in its “Future 50” list because of its “ability to adapt, innovate, and grow.”
    • “Recognized as a leader in every market they play in.”
    • Discussed how Atlassian is scaling to more teams, including finance and marketing.
    • Shared stats on how some companies have increased savings or sped up development by using Atlassian tools:
      • Air France-KLM saved “2,500 hours daily on the Atlassian Cloud.”
      • Rivian achieved a “36% cost savings” by consolidating collaboration on the Atlassian Cloud.
      • The California Department of Healthcare Services is delivering projects “three times faster” with teams on Atlassian Cloud.
    • Reviewed definitions of their “System of Work”:
      • Align work to goals.
      • Plan and track work.
      • Unleash knowledge.
      • Make AI part of the team.
    • How do you adopt the “System of Work?”
      • Upgrade to Cloud, of course.
    • Compared on-prem instances to “2015”:
      • All of your data is siloed in each product (Jira, Confluence, etc.).
    • In Cloud, all of the products have been rebuilt into a series of interconnected apps:
      • Called the “Atlassian Cloud Platform.”
      • All of your data is in the “Teamwork Graph.”
      • Many more apps are available in the Cloud.
      • A singular home app knows “everything that’s going on” with your first- and third-party apps.
    • Rovo:
      • “World-class AI-powered search and agent.”
      • It’s been available for six months.
      • Center of the portfolio.
    • In the past year, Atlassian has shipped 49 Cloud infrastructure improvements—a new record:
      • Support for 150,000 users on a single Confluence site.
      • Soon to support 100,000 users on a single Jira site.
      • Significant decrease in load times across various pages.
      • Expanded data residency to cover six new apps.
      • Enhanced compliance:
        • Achieved ISO 27001 and SOC 2 compliance for Rovo AI.
        • IRAP Protected Assessment.
        • FedRAMP Moderate for government customers.
    • Now there are three Cloud deployment options:
      • Standard Cloud.
      • Atlassian Government Cloud:
        • Exclusively for US government customers and partners.
        • Meets FedRAMP Moderate compliance.
        • Operates in a separate environment.
        • Currently in Early Access.
      • Atlassian Isolated Cloud:
        • Single-tenant environment with isolated compute, storage, and networking.
        • For customers needing dedicated infrastructure.
        • Coming in 2026.
    • Teamwork Graph:
      • Intelligent data store underpinning all apps and agents.
      • Connects all of your work objects, teams, messages, goals, and meetings across Atlassian and third-party apps.
      • Grows based on usage.
      • “Contains over 10 billion objects and 40 billion connections.”
    • Platform Apps:
      • Cloud sites now come preloaded with “Platform Apps:”
        • Home: helps with context switching and centralizes navigation across your system of work.
        • Goals: single source of truth for how work connects to outcomes.
      • Increased consistency across apps:
        • Updated color system with light and dark themes.
        • New typography system with custom hand-made fonts.
        • Hundreds of new handcrafted icons.
        • Nearly 6,000 accessibility improvements.
      • Updated app switcher, header, global navigation, and universal create.
    • Rovo (continued):
      • Over 1 million monthly users.
      • **Now included with every Jira or Confluence subscription. **
      • Price for other users dropped from $20/mo to $5/mo.
      • Three Rovo apps:
        • Enterprise Search:
          • Expanded from eight data connectors to more than 50.
          • Can connect to Jira and Confluence DC (Confluence available today, Jira coming soon).
          • Generates AI summaries of results.
          • Smart links are indexed in the Teamwork Graph.
          • Feels like a better version of Glean.
        • Chat:
          • Can take actions (create meetings, send emails, etc.).
          • Example: summarizing top launch risks and proposing backup plans.
          • Deep Research (newest addition):
            • Performs a deep search on your Teamwork Graph based on complex prompts.
            • Generates research reports.
              • Sounds a lot like what’s been rolled out recently for ChatGPT and Gemini?
              • Interface looks to be the same as Gemini, I’m thinking it uses that on the backend.
            • Available in the Confluence mobile app.
        • Studio:
          • New Rovo app for builders.
          • Build custom agents, automations, assets, and content hubs.
          • Use Forge to create custom skills or full applications.
          • Example agent: post-meeting workflow for a product manager, analyzing customer feedback, sending Slack messages, logging HubSpot activity, and more.
    • Other Jira improvements:
      • Public intake forms (no more service desk portal needed).
      • Project templates (helpful for admins).
    • Other Confluence improvements:
      • Block-layout editing experience (Notion-like?).
      • Collaborative whiteboards.
      • Databases (also Notion-like?).
      • Live Docs: real-time collaboration
        • No version control.
      • Context-sensitive AI actions.
    • Loom:
      • Fastest-growing product at scale.
      • Tightly integrated into Jira and Confluence.
      • “Replaced the need for 200 million meetings worldwide.”
      • Can turn Loom videos into bug reports or Confluence pages using AI.
    • Atlassian Teamwork Collection:
      • Jira, Confluence, and Loom as one subscription.
      • Starting at $15/user
        • Unable to verify this pricing on the Atlassian website, just says “Contact Sales.”
    • Udemy saved “2,400 hours” annually from redundant meetings using Atlassian tools.
    • Teamwork Collection Demos:
      • Demo of Vitafleet planning a launch in Jira Plans.
        • Goals - accessible in Plans but also other apps.
        • Embedded Loom video
          • Have Rovo listen and make suggestions.
    • Vitafleet team has tons of meetings
      • Loom AI for meetings
      • Use Rovo to take action items from a meeting and turn them into Jira work items.
      • Rovo to catch up users who missed the meeting.
      • Works in Zoom, MS Teams and Google Meet video calls.
    • Vitafleet marketing manager
      • Starts the day in the Home app
      • Found out ger budget has been cut, uses Rovo to brainstorm to help her revise the plan.
      • Team gets a suggestion from Rovo to visually the email campaign flow.
      • Different agent creates the diagram for them.
      • Manager records a loom directly on the whiteboard, then embeds that video on the whiteboard.
    • These were obviously staged and pre-recorded, but still, very impressive.
  • Anu Bharadwaj
    • Leadership teams:
      • How do they know if their teams are working on the right things?
      • Atlassian Strategy Collection:
        • Focus (generally available):
          • Central hub for strategic planning (Vitafleet uses OKRs).
          • Plan and respond quickly to change.
          • “Define your own unique planning framework.”
      • Turns your strategic plan into a “living artifact.”
      • Focus areas:
        • Goals.
        • Work.
        • Teams.
        • Funds.
        • AI can make recommendations when a Focus Area gets off track.
        • Talent (announced):
          • Workforce planning: visibility into availability and impact of reallocating specialists.
            • “Instant visibility into your workforce.”
          • AI-driven talent recommendations.
            • Identify where needed specialists are within the org.
      • Started as an internal tool.
        • Jira Align:
          • Now part of Strategy Collection.
          • Includes Focus and Talent are free for Jira Align customers.
    • Jira Product Discovery:
      • Feedback analyzer:
        • Rovo can analyze support tickets and group them.
      • Tracks how product ideas impact goals and metrics (Doodle, a scheduling company, saw “50% more innovation time, 25% faster delivery, and 93% less planning time”).
    • Rovo Dev Agents:
      • DevEx survey: leaders say AI is most effective for developer productivity, yet 62% of developers haven’t seen significant gains.
        • Developers spend very little time actually writing code.
    • Create code plans.
      • Helps with the back and forth to clarify requirements.
    • Generate code.
      • Can transform a Jira ticket directly into working code.
    • Review PRs.
      • Reviews code against your standards “before a human gets involved.”
    • Rovo Dev Agents have improved Atlassian’s cycle time by 45%.
      • Available in public beta at atlassian.com/rovo-dev.
    • Jira Service Management:
      • atlassian.com/ai-itsm
      • AI driven ITSM (e.g., Thumbtack automated 15% of ticket resolution).
      • AI sentiment analysis for ticket prioritization and assignee suggestions.
      • Asset management across the system of work, now supporting 10 million assets.
      • HR service management: 29 templates, Journey Builder, Workday integration, Okta coming soon.
      • Customer service management: includes Rovo Chat agent for websites with Jira Product Discovery integration.
  • Brian Duffy and Matthias Hansen
    • Briand: New chief revenue officer.
    • Matthias: Domino’s CTO
    • Domino’s case study:
      • Tracked everything with a Jira label.
      • Moved from six siloed systems to Atlassian across software, IT, and business teams.
      • Used Jira Product Discovery for planning demand.
      • Emphasis on business user adoption and extensive Rovo usage.
  • Mike Cannon-Brookes (Closing)
    • Key takeaways:
      • Rovo is awesome.
      • Teamwork Collection is a common language for all teams.
      • Strategy Collection will help technology leaders drive their work.

Opening Keynote: Start Your Engines with Atlassian Williams Racing

  • Mike Cannon-Brookes, James Vowles and Jenson Button
    • James: Atlassian Williams Racing Team Principal
    • Jenson: 2009 Formula 1 World Champion
    • Mostly a discussion about Formula 1 (which I know nothing about).
    • No product announcements or anything, but a pretty interesting talk. It’s impressive the amount of planning, engineering, etc, that goes into designing those cars.

Closing Keynote: Learning and Knowledge Discovery in the AI Era

  • Anu Bharadwaj, Sal Khan, and Ben Gomes
    • Ben: SVP Learning and Education at Google.
      • Talked about joining Google in 1999, and being amazed the first time he was on a bus trip in India and heard people talking about using Google.
      • Talked about the other projects at Google that have a lot of reach and can be used for education.
    • Sal: Founder of Khan Academy
      • Talked about starting as a family tutor while his day job was as an analyst at a hedge fund.
      • Started making YouTube videos of his lessons.
      • Personal note: I am a HUGE fan of the work that Khan Academy does and have been for a while, so it was exciting to see him here._
    • Talked about the similarity of Loom and Khan Academy videos.
    • Talked about people learning things on YouTube and how they’re adding AI into that.
    • Talked about how Google is helping teachers with AI (with things like helping with paperwork and all of the other “non-teaching” things.)
    • Helping teachers with planning, grading, making quizzes, etc.
    • A lot of talk about Khan Academy’s early use of using AI as an interactive tutor, how that’s been progressing.
    • Rest of the talk was just about education and AI.
      • Personalizing how you learn
      • Amplifying curiosity
      • Providing interactive education to underserved areas
    • “What is the most profound positive impact you think AI can have?”
      • Sal:
        • More accessible healthcare.
        • Increased productivity.
        • Mentioned self driving cars and the economic impact that will have
        • “In 40 years it could look a lot like Star Trek.”
        • Things should be so abundant that we can focus on human connection.
      • Ben:
        • It’s becoming easier for people to learn things.
        • It’s becoming easier for people to do things.
          • Mentioned vibe coding.
        • People will get “more capabilities” as it’s easier to learn and pick up new skills.
        • The advances in the medical field.
      • “What is the most unexpected thing that you, personally, have learned that you wouldn’t have been able to without AI.”
        • Ben:
          • Mitochondria.
            • Was reading a book on it, but it assumed a background in biology that he didn’t have.
            • Switched over to Gemini to get a quick crash course on that.
        • Sal:
          • Asked Khanmigo “Why does a supernova explode?”

My Thoughts

  • The push for AI was not surprising, but I’m not nearly as cynical about it as I have been in the past. It’s still a little frustrating to think about how Data Center is being left behind, and how there are feature requests that have been open for years that haven’t been addressed, but overall I’ve generally drank the Kool Aid on how AI can be really helpful, and this seems like a great use case for that.
  • Atlassian’s push to “non tech” teams makes perfect sense. At a certain point they have to to have hit some hard diminishing returns mostly marketing to software teams. They already basically that that entire market covered.
  • Watching Anu, Sal, and Ben dive into AI’s role in education was very interesting. Learning and self education is something I think about a lot, something I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, and something I want to write about more.

Stay Tuned For Part 2