GenAI in Requirements Engineering: Insights from IEEE RE 2026

This week, the 34th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (IEEE RE 2026) is taking place in Montréal, Canada — the premier international conference for requirements engineering research and practice. Andreas Birk of Software.Process.Management (SWPM) serves on the Program Committee for the Requirements Engineering Industrial Innovation Papers track, reflecting SWPM’s ongoing engagement in bridging industry and research at applied conferences.

„RE 2026 is where industrial practice and academic research meet to gather experience and further advance our discipline,“ says Birk.

One theme running through this year’s conference is the growing role of generative AI in requirements engineering. A contribution Birk finds particularly relevant is Prof. Lionel Briand’s talk on LLM-driven RE, which presents three important GenAI application cases for RE: automating dependency analysis, regulatory tracing, and impact analysis. „We must focus on such specific use cases to learn most effectively and to gain tangible benefit rapidly,“ says Birk.