Visual Studio 18.5 lands with AI debugging at a price, devs still feeling blue

Visual Studio 2026 18.5 introduces two major changes: a unified code suggestion system that prevents IntelliSense and GitHub Copilot from conflicting, and an agentic AI debugger that autonomously inspects code, generates hypotheses, sets breakpoints, and proposes fixes. However, the AI debugger consumes tokens per use, raising questions about its cost-effectiveness. Meanwhile, developer frustration persists over the removal of the classic blue theme (which reduced color contrast and readability after an 87% token reduction in the color system) and forced automatic updates that interrupt work sessions. A workaround for the update behavior requires editing a config file not exposed in the UI.