Presented by Mario Rodriguez and Luke Hoban, this session from Microsoft Ignite shows how GitHub Copilot and AI agents can transform software development practices for DevOps teams with automation and integrated cloud tooling.

Reimagining Software Development with GitHub Copilot and AI Agents

Speakers: Mario Rodriguez, Luke Hoban
Event: Microsoft Ignite 2025 - BRK105

Overview

This session demonstrates how organizations with robust DevOps practices can maximize productivity, scale, and security by adopting GitHub Copilot and AI-powered coding agents. Leveraging these tools, development teams can:

• Automate code feedback and pull request (PR) integration
• Manage agent tasks through GitHub Mission Control
• Streamline responses to operational incidents (e.g., SRE agents integrating with tools like PagerDuty)
• Move toward a more open and collaborative development environment with both human and agent interactions

Session Highlights

• Impact of Coding Agents: Productivity and workflow improvements across Microsoft and GitHub
• Demos:
  • Cross-device developer experiences with AI agents
  • Using GitHub Mission Control for managing cloud-based agent tasks
  • SRE agents automatically responding to incidents
  • Automating PR feedback and implementation
• Security & Controls: Deep dive into Copilot controls and MCP registry options
• Enterprise Considerations: Permissions, deployment strategies, and future directions for collaboration between GitHub and Azure DevOps

Further Resources

• GitHub Copilot Features
• Copilot Agents Documentation
• Microsoft Ignite Session Page
• Related Ignite Sessions: BRK108, BRK109, BRK106, BRK107, BRK218

Chapter Timestamps

• 0:00 – Impact of coding agents across Microsoft and GitHub
• 13:09 – Seamless developer experience demo
• 13:26 – Overview of AI agents in software development
• 17:57 – Mission Control for agent tasks
• 22:00 – Automating code feedback and PR integration
• 23:17 – SRE agent responding to PagerDuty incidents
• 38:25 – Copilot controls, registry options, GitHub as an open platform
• 42:42 – Enterprise deployment, permissions, and Q&A

Key Takeaways

• AI coding agents and tools like GitHub Copilot are rapidly transforming DevOps and software development workflows.
• Automation and agent-driven tasks can improve incident response times and code quality at scale.
• Enterprise deployment, security control, and collaborative agent platforms are key focus areas for the future of cloud-based software engineering.