I talked with many developers and watched many conf sessions. Where is AI-powered development going? And read my impressions of NDC London 2026.

We Are .NET

A developer's firsthand account of NDC London 2026, covering key sessions on AI-assisted development. Highlights include Damian Brady's warning against shipping code you don't understand, Sheena O'Connell's long-game strategy for engineers in an AI era, Kevlin Henney's case for modular monoliths over premature microservices, and Steve Sanderson's 10-point framework for productive AI coding agents (subagents, plan mode, skills, MCP, hooks, infinite sessions, git workflow). The author also shares personal observations: AI adoption among conference attendees was lower than expected, conference attendance is declining, and the most valuable future skill will be reviewing and directing AI-generated code rather than writing code manually.

AI and NDC London 2026: A .NET Conference From a Developer’s Perspective