AI Empowered Software Development Foundation explores how experienced software developers and teams can dramatically enhance their productivity with modern AI tools. The course runs across three intensive, hands-on days. These tools include generative AI systems, coding assistants, co-pilots, development environment add-ons, simulated data generation tools, testing tools, deployment tools, and collaboration tools. Throughout, the course emphasizes maintaining code accuracy, security, and responsibility.
This course covers foundational through advanced concepts in AI code assistance and prompt engineering, built entirely around Visual Studio Code, and tailored for Microsoft-centric shops: it centers on the GitHub Copilot family plus two other agentic coding tools, with no dependency on Google’s AI products. Attendees get hands-on, side-by-side comfort with the AI coding tools they’re most likely to encounter on a real team: GitHub Copilot in the editor (completions, Chat, Agent Mode, parallel agent sessions, and the Copilot coding agent), GitHub Copilot CLI (the terminal-native counterpart, built on the same agentic harness), OpenAI Codex CLI, and Anthropic’s Claude Code — all run from within VS Code so attendees leave able to install, configure, and switch between them confidently. Labs also bring in general-purpose chat interfaces such as ChatGPT and Claude for ideation, architecture design, and best-practices auditing, so attendees can see where a chat-based LLM complements an in-editor agent.
Day two turns to operations. Attendees write and optimize test cases with Copilot’s, Claude Code’s, and Codex’s test-generation and code review features, alongside complementary AI-powered quality tools such as DeepSource and Qodo. They set up an AI-enhanced CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions together with the Copilot coding agent (issue-to-PR automation), with a look at enterprise DevOps platforms like Harness for teams that need it. They also collaborate on a shared project using Copilot code review, PR summarization, and other AI-powered platforms for version control. Day three shifts to technique and governance. Prompt engineering sessions cover zero-shot, few-shot, and chain-of-thought prompting. Attendees use LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude to tackle complex development challenges while learning to recognize and reduce hallucinations. The course closes by evaluating AI-generated content for fairness and bias and identifying security flaws that AI-generated code can introduce, giving teams a responsible, secure foundation for everyday AI-assisted development.
Who Should Attend
Anyone interested in generative AI accelerated software engineering
What Attendees Will Learn
Upon completing AI Empowered Software Development Foundation, participants will be able to:
- Demonstrate mastery of AI tools and techniques to enhance software development productivity
- Confidently install, configure, and work in VS Code with GitHub Copilot, Copilot CLI, Claude Code, and Codex
- Show proficiency in applying the target language and SQL with AI-powered assistants
- Use Generative AI to augment critical thinking around code structure and architecture
- Work with AI in problem-solving settings
- Understand the basis for hallucinations and how to reduce them
- Have confidence using AI for testing, deployment, and collaboration
- Identify ethical and responsible AI development practices
- Create high-quality documents, articles and marketing content
Prerequisites
- Proficiency in target language
- Basic SQL skills
- Experience with basic software development workflows
- Familiarity with typical development tools like Git, Docker, and IDEs