Getting started with Blazor is one thing—building real apps quickly with AI is another. In this session from Visual Studio Live! Las Vegas 2026, Alan Conway walks through how to go from zero to a working Blazor application using GitHub Copilot.

See how Copilot fits directly into your development workflow to scaffold apps, explore Blazor project options, and accelerate everyday coding tasks. This session also highlights an important theme: AI can speed you up significantly, but developer judgment and context still matter.

🔑 What You’ll Learn
• Getting started with Blazor using modern project templates
• Using GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio and VS Code
• Chat vs. agent mode and when to use each
• Building and enhancing apps with AI assistance
• Prompting techniques and providing effective context
• Refactoring, testing, and modernizing code with Copilot
• Where AI helps most and where developers still need to lead

⏱️ Chapters
03:21 GitHub Copilot overview, capabilities, and features
06:13 Real-world use cases: legacy code and productivity
11:08 Setting up Copilot in Visual Studio and VS Code
18:06 How Copilot works: context and models
28:08 Creating a Blazor app with Copilot
35:10 Blazor templates and project setup
41:10 Copilot agents and prompt workflows
49:26 Enhancing a Blazor app with agent mode
52:15 Prompting, iteration, and working with AI in real workflows

👤 Speaker
Allen Conway (@TheEclecticDev)
Principal Consultant, Xebia | Microsoft MVP

🔗 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

#blazor #githubcopilot #vscode #visualstudio #vslive

Building AI-powered applications isn’t just about calling a model. It’s about understanding how AI works and designing systems that are reliable, secure, and scalable. In this keynote from Visual Studio Live! Las Vegas 2026, Jerry Nixon and Drew Skwiers-Koballa break down the real path to building AI applications, from context windows and agents to data access and orchestration.

Learn how modern AI systems are built, why architecture matters more than ever, and how developers can move from experimentation to production-ready AI solutions.

🔑 What You’ll Learn
• How AI models work, including tokens, context windows, and cost tradeoffs
• Why context management is critical for performance and reliability
• How to design AI agents with clear responsibilities and minimal context
• The role of data access, tools, and retrieval (RAG) in AI apps
• Why natural language to SQL (NL2SQL) is risky in production
• How to securely connect AI to enterprise data using APIs and MCP
• How vector search enables semantic querying
• Why multi-agent orchestration is a key emerging pattern

⏱️ Chapters
01:07 Rethinking UI in AI-powered apps
02:45 How AI works: tokens, context windows, and cost
04:25 Managing context, memory, and reliability
07:02 Prompts, agents, and AI guardrails
10:27 Tools, RAG, and connecting AI to your data
13:53 Risks of NL2SQL and production considerations
15:17 Secure data access with MCP and APIs
20:28 AI + data strategy with SQL Server 2025
26:01 SQL projects, DevOps, and database lifecycle
33:35 Copilot in SSMS and database-level AI instructions
42:16 Multi-agent architecture and orchestration
47:37 Vector search demo and semantic querying
49:35 Multi-agent demo and key takeaways

👤 Speakers
Jerry Nixon (@jerrynixon)
Product Manager, Microsoft

Drew Skwiers-Koballa
Program Manager, Microsoft

🔗 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

#ai #copilot #sqlserver #visualstudio #vslive

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