In this talk, backed by two decades of experience in software engineering and data science, I will explore how AI agents and Retrieval-Augmented Generation are revolutionizing the development of modern, scalable applications. Packed with field-tested solutions and insights from top-tier Information Retrieval consultants, the session will delve into designing unified architectures, strategies for mitigating hallucinations, and lessons learned from working on NLP and Text-to-SQL since 2004—all aimed at empowering architects and developers to build robust, innovative AI-powered systems.