Keynote: The Road to Visual Studio 2027: Building a Faster, Smarter IDE | VS Live! Las Vegas 2026

What does the future of development look like in the age of AI? In this @VisualStudioLive session from Visual Studio Live! Las Vegas 2026, Mads Kristensen explores how Visual Studio 2026 is evolving with GitHub Copilot, AI-assisted workflows, and continuous updates—while giving a preview of what’s ahead for Visual Studio 2027. From performance optimization with Copilot to the growing importance of testing, debugging, and code review, this session provides a practical roadmap for navigating AI without losing control of your code or your craft. 🔑 What You’ll Learn • The real impact of AI and GitHub Copilot on day-to-day development workflows • Why developer skills like debugging and system understanding matter more than ever • How Visual Studio is evolving with monthly releases and an “evergreen” update model • What’s coming next in Visual Studio 2027 and how it fits into the roadmap • Using profiling + Copilot to identify bottlenecks and optimize performance • Why unit testing and strong test coverage are critical in AI-assisted development • How to prepare your backlog and workflows for agent-based development • Where Visual Studio is investing next: testing, diagnostics, integrations, and meaningful AI ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 AI landscape + developer reality check 03:59 The reality of AI in day-to-day development 08:11 The “Why, What, How” framework for modern development 10:58 Higher-level development: AI, architecture, and integration 13:06 Why tooling still matters: IDE, debugging, and testing 14:43 Copilot-powered profiling and optimization demo 23:02 AI + tooling: profiling, performance, and learning loops 25:05 Preparing for AI: testing, backlog, and agents 28:56 Visual Studio investments and future direction 32:14 Visual Studio Insiders and roadmap to 2027 👤 Speaker Mads Kristensen (@mkristensen) Principal Product Manager, Visual Studio 🔗 Links • Download Visual Studio 2026: http://visualstudio.com/download • Explore more VS Live! Las Vegas sessions: https://aka.ms/VSLiveLV26 • Join upcoming VS Live! events: https://aka.ms/VSLiveEvents #visualstudio2026 #visualstudio #githubcopilot #ai #VSLive