AI-Powered Development: Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers

AI has become an essential part of modern software development, promising significant boosts in productivity and efficiency. However, for developers—especially those working with the modern frameworks — the sheer number of AI tools and large language models available today can create complexity rather than clarity. Constantly evolving APIs, shifting standards, and dynamic client requirements further complicate effective adoption, often leading to frustration and suboptimal outcomes when using tools like GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or Windsurf.

In this talk, I'll guide you through the AI tool landscape, highlighting which solutions truly enhance productivity in real-world development scenarios. You'll learn practical strategies for integrating these AI tools effectively into your workflows, and you'll gain insights into their limitations and potential pitfalls. By the end of this session, you'll be equipped to confidently leverage AI tools to streamline and optimize your development workflow.

Transcript

1. AI-Powered Development Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers Daniel Sogl @sogldaniel Software architect
2. Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers AI-Powered Development
3. Daniel Sogl • Software architect @ Thinktecture AG • Focus: Angular, Capacitor and AI-Coding • Socials: https://linktr.ee/daniel_sogl About me Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers AI-Powered Development
4. • AI is transforming software development workflows • Tools like GitHub Copilot and Claude promise increased productivity • Challenges: too many tools, unclear benefits, rapid change AI-Powered Development Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers Why AI Matters in Development
5. • Developers' complete tasks 26% faster (MIT, 2023) • Coding tasks on average 55% faster (GitHub, 2024) • Research work reduced by 67% - “Dead Internet Theory” (JetBrains, 2024) • Less burnout, more time for creative tasks (GitHub, 2024) AI-Powered Development Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers Productivity claims over productivity claims
6. Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers AI-Powered Development
7. Stay focused • Code Completion Assistants (e.g., Copilot, Gemini Code) • AI IDEs (e.g., Cursor, Windsurf) • CLIs (e.g., Claude Code, CodeX, Gemini CLI) • Chat Assistants (e.g., Claude Desktop, Copilot Chat) • Agentic Tools and MCP Servers • Full-Stack Builders (e.g., Lovable.dev) AI-Powered Development Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers Tool Categories
8. Full-stack applications with a user-friendly approach • User friendly interface for nontechnical users • Uses React • Chat mode to plan before acting • Strong Supabase integration for authentication and databases • 3rd Party integrations like Stripe, Resend or OpenAI • Optimized for team collaboration with GitHub- first workflows Tool Spotlight: Lovable.dev Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers AI-Powered Development
9. The all-inclusive AI Coding tool • Can be used across multiple IDEs (VS-Code, IntelliJ, Xcode etc.) • Free to use / 10$ per month for the pro version • Provides ask, edit and agent mode • Inline autocompletion, code reviews and test generation • Provides different LLMs (GPT, Gemini, Sonnet) • MCP (Model Context Protocol) support Tool Spotlight: GitHub Copilot – Edit/Agent Mode Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers AI-Powered Development
10. • Access Google Gemini 2.5 through your terminal • Open-Source • 1.000 requests per day for free • Customizable instructions and prompts • MCP support • Can be integrated into existing workflows like CI/CD environments AI-Powered Development Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers Gemini CLI
11. • Chat interface with Claude AI on your desktop • Powerful for architecture, planning, and refactoring • Can write code, perform research, and search the web • Responses styles can be configured (informative, professional, funny) • Extended via MCP for local file access and actions AI-Powered Development Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers Claude Desktop
12. The key for ”intelligent” workflows • Open-source protocol invented by Anthropic • Provides a consistent way for LLMs to interact with external resources • Works like the USB-C standard • Official servers are available for GitHub, Atlassian, Playwright, Stripe, Databases and more • It’s the key to useful AI-coding setups in complex environments Source: https://www.dailydoseofds.com/p/visual-guide-to-model-context-protocol-mcp/ AI-Powered Development Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers Model Context Protocol (MCP)
13. Understand the limits of LLMs' Mistakes • LLMs are not intelligent by default • LLMs were trained on older data • LLMs have different context windows • Not all LLMs are optimized for coding Solutions • Keep track of LLM benchmarks for coding (SWE-Bench) • Compare pricing for optimized token per dollar usage • Give LLMs access to unknown context • Add custom instructions AI-Powered Development Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers Common mistakes when working with AI-Coding tools
14. Don’t try to build entire features with a single prompt Mistakes • It's fascinating to see how fast AI-tools can generate code and good results • Developers often try to solve complex features with overly simple prompts • Agent modes can try to find needed context to solve the task Solutions • Split tasks into smaller tasks • Use MCP-Server like sequential-thinking for splitting • Write user stories that can be broken down AI-Powered Development Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers Common mistakes when working with AI-Coding tools
15. Write precise prompts Mistakes • LLMs' are not intelligent by default • LLMs' where trained on older data • LLMs' have different context windows • Not all LLMs are optimized for coding Solutions • Keep track of LLM benchmarks for coding (SWE-Bench) • Compare pricing for optimized token per dollar usage • Give LLMs' access to unknown context AI-Powered Development Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers Common mistakes when working with AI-Coding tools
16. The wrong MCP setup Mistakes • AI-Tools like Copilot have MCP-Tool limits • MCP-Servers can be insecure by not following authentication security standards • MCP-Servers can’t store memories by default Solutions • Use official MCP-Servers (GitHub, Atlassian, Notion etc.) • Disable unused tools • Tag tools manually (works great in Copilot) AI-Powered Development Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers Common mistakes when working with AI-Coding tools
17. • sequential-thinking → splits tasks into smaller ones • GitHub MCP / Atlassian MCP → access your task dashboard, create/update tasks and review code • Database MCP-Servers → allow LLMs' to understand your database schemas • Playwright-MCP → let LLMs' interact with web applications • Perplexity-MCP → scrap web sites • Context7-MCP → fetch full documentations AI-Powered Development Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers MCP-Servers I can recommend
18. • AI assisted coding tools can overwhelm developers • Generated code often is not reviewed well • Developers tend to just copy generated results without understanding the used code • LLMs' need your help to access required context to solve your tasks • Break down tasks and work iteratively • Create custom instructions and reusable prompts • Add external context or advanced thinking strategies using MCP-Servers AI-Powered Development Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers Conclusion
19. • GitHub Copilot Setup: https://github.com/danielsogl/copilot-workflow-demo • Microsoft MCP-Server: https://github.com/microsoft/mcp • Context7: https://context7.com • Sequential Thinking MCP: https://github.com/modelcontextprotocol/servers/tree/main/src/sequentialthinking • Atlassian Remote MCP: https://www.atlassian.com/platform/remote-mcp-server • Gemini CLI: https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli AI-Powered Development Transform Your Workflow with Coding Tools and MCP Servers Sources & Demos
20. Thanks for your attention Daniel Sogl @sogldaniel daniel.sogl@thinktecture.com