AI Engineering Fundamentals You Need to Know To Succeed As Software Engineer (Microsoft Trainer)

Most engineers are using AI coding tools without understanding what they actually are and it's costing them. Microsoft Certified Trainer Rob Bos has trained thousands of engineers on AI tooling, and he sees the same gaps in fundamentals show up again and again, regardless of seniority. This is what you need to know:What an LLM actually is (and why understanding this changes how you use it)Why prompt engineering isn't optionalHow AI magnifies your existing technical debt instead of fixing itThe 6-month learning curve nobody warns you aboutWhy your role as an engineer was never about writing codeThe environmental cost behind every promptWhether you're skeptical of AI tools or already living in agent mode, these are the fundamentals that separate engineers who get real value from those who get burned by the hype.Connect with Rob:https://www.linkedin.com/in/bosrobReferences:Token tracker: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=RobBos.copilot-token-trackerDev survey: https://www.activestate.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/ActiveState-Developer-Survey-2019-Open-Source-Runtime-Pains.pdfTimestamps:00:00:00 - Intro00:00:43 - The #1 Thing Engineers Get Wrong About AI00:02:09 - How Much LLM Theory Do You Actually Need?00:03:58 - Why Pair Programming Is Still the Best Way to Learn AI00:05:26 - Why Rob Skips Tab Completion and Lives in Agent Mode00:07:03 - The "AI Doesn't Increase Productivity" Debate00:08:29 - Why Your Real Job Was Never Writing Code00:09:14 - The 2-Hours-of-Coding Problem No One Talks About00:11:02 - More Code = More Pressure on Your Review Process00:12:21 - Why AI Magnifies Existing Technical Debt00:13:39 - The Customer Who Couldn't Start AI With Developers Yet00:15:11 - The Future Engineer: Reviewer, Not Writer00:17:00 - Convincing the AI Skeptic Who Tried It Years Ago00:19:17 - LLMs Explained Without Visuals (Attention & Semantics)00:22:41 - Why Prompt Engineering Actually Matters00:24:20 - From Zero to Hero: The 6-Month Learning Curve00:26:18 - Is This Confrontational for 20-Year Veterans?00:29:30 - Becoming a Better Engineer by Thinking in Systems00:31:26 - Will AI Stop Working as Innovation Slows?00:34:26 - The Lost Art of Pair Programming with AI00:35:44 - Tribalism in AI Tools (And Why It's Pointless)00:37:33 - Tool Agnostic: Start With the Foundations00:39:40 - Is the IDE Still Relevant?00:40:50 - The Bluescreen Story That Changed His Mind00:41:47 - The Hidden Environmental Cost of AI Coding00:44:15 - 36 Million Tokens in 30 Days: What Does It Mean?00:45:47 - Running LLMs at the Edge to Cut the Footprint00:46:48 - Why You Should Be Allowed to Wait Five Minutes Longer00:47:05 - Outro#githubcopilot #aicoding #softwareengineering