Let’s skip the typical release-cycle enthusiasm for a second: Most IDE updates come and go. New features, some refactoring helpers, a bit of polish, then back to business as usual. Visual Studio 2026 is different. For once, the promise of “AI-native” isn’t just marketing. If Microsoft lands even half of what they’re previewing, it’s going to matter—a lot.
In a previous article, we laid it out – unfiltered: Copilot turns junior devs into syntax secretaries.
Not because it’s evil. But because it removes friction before understanding.
It gives you working code before you know what working even means. It creates the illusion of progress, while slowly eroding the very skills that define a software engineer: reasoning, decision-making, and technical ownership.
The hype around GitHub Copilot (or any other AI code assistant) is deafening. AI-assisted coding. Effortless automation. 10x productivity.
But here’s the harsh truth: Copilot isn’t empowering junior developers – it’s deskilling them.