# BASTA! 2026: Why AI Makes Deep Technology More Important Than Ever

> This week, we exhibited our latest products and engaged with the developer community at BASTA! 2026. This conference highlighted the importance of AI in driving deep technology forward.

- **Author:** Bjoern Meyer
- **Published:** 2026-10-02
- **Modified:** 2026-10-02
- **Description:** This week, we exhibited our latest products and engaged with the developer community at BASTA! 2026. This conference highlighted the importance of AI in driving deep technology forward.
- **10 min read** (1898 words)
- **Tags:**
  - ASP.NET
  - ASP.NET Core
  - AI
  - Conference
- **Web URL:** https://www.textcontrol.com/blog/2026/10/02/basta-2026-why-ai-makes-deep-technology-more-important-than-ever/
- **LLMs URL:** https://www.textcontrol.com/blog/2026/10/02/basta-2026-why-ai-makes-deep-technology-more-important-than-ever/llms.txt
- **LLMs-Full URL:** https://www.textcontrol.com/blog/2026/10/02/basta-2026-why-ai-makes-deep-technology-more-important-than-ever/llms-full.txt

---

The past few weeks have been intense. We traveled from the NDC Oslo conference to the WeAreDevelopers North America conference in San Jose, and then on to the BASTA! conference in Mainz. We experienced three conferences, three very different developer communities, thousands of attendees, countless conversations, and numerous live demonstrations of our technology.

Now that BASTA! is over, we finally have time to reflect on this marathon of conferences, and we are extremely happy with the results.

More importantly, these conferences provided insight into what developers are currently thinking about regarding AI, software components, and the future of application development.

### From Oslo to San José to Mainz

These conferences were especially valuable because we had the opportunity to talk directly to developers, which is one of the best ways to understand how software development is changing.

This particular run was interesting because the three conferences could hardly have been more different. NDC Oslo brought together a highly technical, international .NET audience. WeAreDevelopers North America gave us the opportunity to meet developers in our largest market, the United States. BASTA! brought us back to one of the most well-established .NET developer conferences in Germany.

At BASTA!, we were the main sponsor and the only component vendor exhibiting at the conference. This gave us a unique position because we could demonstrate our technology to developers actively building business applications and evaluating how AI will change their development processes.

The interest was huge.

However, the conversations were not primarily about whether AI would replace traditional software development. Developers have already moved beyond that question. A much more interesting question is how AI can be combined with proven technology to build better applications faster.

This event provided a clear picture of what developers are currently thinking about regarding AI, software components, and the future of application development.

One observation became clear: AI does not make deep technology libraries obsolete. Quite the opposite, in fact. These libraries are becoming more important than ever.

#### AI Can Write Code, but It Does Not Replace Technology

AI is dramatically changing software development. Now, developers can describe functionality and generate surprisingly sophisticated implementations in just minutes. AI can create application structures, write integration code, build user interfaces, connect APIs, and assist with understanding unfamiliar code bases.

![AI-powered software development](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/ai-powered.webp "AI-powered software development")

These changes are transforming the economics of software development. However, it's important to distinguish between generating code and building deep technology.

Consider document processing. Creating a PDF file containing a few paragraphs is relatively simple. However, building a document processing engine that can import and export complex DOCX documents, render documents consistently, and handle tables, headers, footers, sections, fonts, forms, digital signatures, PDF standards, and hundreds of other document features is a completely different undertaking.

These engines represent decades of engineering, testing, and accumulated knowledge. AI does not suddenly eliminate that complexity. Instead, AI makes this technology easier to use.

#### The Role of Components Is Changing

For many years, software components were primarily focused on developer productivity. Rather than developing a complex feature from scratch, developers licensed a component and integrated it into their application.

This principle still applies, but AI adds another dimension. An AI agent can generate integration code for a library. It can understand APIs, create workflows, and connect existing technologies in ways that previously required significantly more manual development work. This makes powerful libraries even more valuable.

When AI has access to a mature API, it does not have to create an implementation for a difficult problem. It can use technology that already solves the problem reliably.

We are seeing this very clearly with TX Text Control. Developers use AI to build applications faster while relying on our document processing technology for functionality. The combination is extremely powerful.

#### Simple Components Are Different

Another change became apparent during our conversations. The market for simple UI components has changed significantly. If a developer needs a basic button, dialog, layout, or simple visualization, AI can often generate exactly what is required. Modern frameworks already provide much of the foundation, and AI can fill many of the remaining gaps.

Deep technology is different. No one should expect an AI coding agent to build a complete DOCX rendering engine, PDF processing stack, or professional document editor from scratch and have it provide the maturity, compatibility, and reliability required for enterprise applications.

The same applies to many other complex areas of software development. This is where established libraries continue to provide enormous value. Often, purchasing a perpetual license for proven technology is more cost-effective than developing, testing, and maintaining the same functionality internally. AI does not change this equation. In fact, it makes the difference even more obvious.

#### AI Needs Reliable Building Blocks

As AI agents take on a larger role in how applications are designed and built, I believe this concept will become increasingly important in software development. AI agents still need reliable building blocks, and the quality of these blocks directly influences the quality of the applications that can be created with them. A mature software library with a comprehensive, well-designed API provides AI agents with powerful capabilities they can leverage immediately. Rather than generating and maintaining thousands of lines of specialized code for complex functionality, the agent can call a proven API, rely on deterministic behavior, and focus on the application's actual business logic and requirements.

This is also why we are investing heavily in making our technology accessible to AI-based development workflows. Our goal is not to merely add an AI button to an existing product or place a conversational interface on top of established functionality. We want our document technology to be a fundamental building block for AI-assisted and agent-based software development. This way, developers and AI agents can use the same mature document engine to create, process, edit, and automate documents as part of much larger application workflows.

The document engine remains the foundation. Its mature APIs, deterministic behavior, and deep document processing capabilities are what make the technology valuable. AI does not replace this foundation but provides an extremely powerful new way to use it. This makes sophisticated document functionality easier to integrate, automate, and combine with the rest of an application's business logic.

#### Developers Still Care About Quality

Another encouraging observation from all three conferences was that developers still care deeply about quality. While there is enormous excitement around AI and its potential for software development, professional developers understand the difference between creating an impressive prototype and building a production system that must work reliably every day. Once software moves into production, requirements such as reliability, compatibility, performance, security, and maintainability become just as important as development speed.

![Alternatives](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/alternatives.webp "Alternatives")

This is especially true for enterprise applications, where documents are often an integral part of critical business processes involving contracts, invoices, healthcare information, government processes, and other important data. In these environments, "almost correct" is insufficient, and solutions must behave consistently and predictably across thousands or even millions of documents. AI can accelerate development and help developers build these applications much faster. However, underneath that acceleration, we still need deterministic, proven, and reliable technology.

### A Great BASTA! 2026

BASTA! was the perfect ending to our conference marathon. As the main sponsor, we had a very visible presence, and our team spent several busy days demonstrating TX Text Control and discussing architectures with developers. We talked with them about their current projects, future requirements, and how AI is changing the way they build applications.

As the only component vendor exhibiting at BASTA!, these conversations were particularly interesting. There was a huge demand for our demonstrations, and it became clear that developers are looking for sophisticated technology to integrate into their applications instead of rebuilding complex functionality themselves. This is a very positive signal for us because we have spent decades developing advanced document technology, and AI does not render this investment irrelevant. Instead, AI creates new ways to access, integrate, and use that technology.

#### And We Are Not Done Yet

Oslo, San Jose, and Mainz were quite the run, but our 2026 conference season is far from over. We already have four more conferences on our calendar: TechBash, code.talks, and Visual Studio Live! , Orlando, and DDC Cologne. These events provide us with four more opportunities to meet developers, showcase our work, and continue conversations about AI, professional software components, and the future of application development.

The pace of change in software development is incredible, and that is exactly what makes this such an exciting time to be part of this industry. AI is changing how we write software and how quickly we can turn an idea into a working application. However, it does not eliminate the need for sophisticated technology behind those applications. In fact, our conversations over the past few weeks have reinforced our belief that this technology is becoming even more important. AI is changing how we write software, but great software still requires great underlying technology.

See below for some impressions of our booth at BASTA! 2026.

[![Text Control at BASTA! 2026](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_01.webp "Text Control at BASTA! 2026")](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_01.webp)

[![Text Control at BASTA! 2026](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_02.webp "Text Control at BASTA! 2026")](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_02.webp)

[![Text Control at BASTA! 2026](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_03.webp "Text Control at BASTA! 2026")](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_03.webp)

[![Text Control at BASTA! 2026](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_04.webp "Text Control at BASTA! 2026")](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_04.webp)

[![Text Control at BASTA! 2026](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_05.webp "Text Control at BASTA! 2026")](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_05.webp)

[![Text Control at BASTA! 2026](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_06.webp "Text Control at BASTA! 2026")](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_06.webp)

[![Text Control at BASTA! 2026](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_07.webp "Text Control at BASTA! 2026")](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_07.webp)

[![Text Control at BASTA! 2026](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_08.webp "Text Control at BASTA! 2026")](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_08.webp)

[![Text Control at BASTA! 2026](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_09.webp "Text Control at BASTA! 2026")](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_09.webp)

[![Text Control at BASTA! 2026](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_10.webp "Text Control at BASTA! 2026")](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_10.webp)

[![Text Control at BASTA! 2026](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_11.webp "Text Control at BASTA! 2026")](https://s1-www.textcontrol.com/assets/dist/blog/2026/10/02/a/assets/tx_basta_11.webp)

See you next year!

---

## About Bjoern Meyer

As CEO, Bjoern is the visionary behind our strategic direction and business development, bridging the gap between our customers and engineering teams. His deep passion for coding and web technologies drives the creation of innovative products. If you're at a tech conference, be sure to stop by our booth - you'll most likely meet Bjoern in person. With an advanced graduate degree (Dipl. Inf.) in Computer Science, specializing in AI, from the University of Bremen, Bjoern brings significant expertise to his role. In his spare time, Bjoern enjoys running, paragliding, mountain biking, and playing the piano.

- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bjoernmeyer/)
- [X](https://x.com/txbjoern)
- [GitHub](https://github.com/bjoerntx)

---

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