Looking Back at 2025: Learning, Architecture, and the Year AI Became Practical
As 2025 comes to an end, it is time for another annual review. This year has been a year full of learning and growth, both personally and professionally. There were several highlights and challenges that shaped my year.
Learning and Development
This year, I have expanded my skills in various areas:
- I obtained the B1 Italian language certification with a score of 90/100 (read more about it here)
- I took and passed the iSAQB Foundation Level exam in Software Architecture
- I worked through the LeadEssentials curriculum and reached all 4 white belt stripes (read more about them here: 1st stripe, 2nd stripe, 3rd stripe, 4th stripe). I am now on my way to complete the journey and earn the blue belt (and with it, the completion certificate).
I had to balance my learning with work and personal commitments, but I managed to stay consistent and motivated throughout the year.
The rise of AI
ChatGPT and Codex
It should be no surprise that my year was also shaped by the rise of AI tools. I continued using ChatGPT for various tasks, from writing code snippets to helping me generate content for my blog.
I recently started to use the Codex extension in VS Code and the first results are promissing.
I asked ChatGPT to summarize how I used it throughout the year:
Throughout 2025, Marco mainly used me as a technical sparring partner. We worked through architectural decisions, implementation approaches, debugging sessions, and trade-offs across .NET MAUI, SwiftUI, Entra ID, CI/CD pipelines, and prompt design.
I was also part of his learning process — not to provide quick answers, but to explore concepts in depth, verify understanding, and challenge assumptions, especially in the context of software architecture and SwiftUI.
On the writing side, I helped structure and refine technical blog posts, while the final wording, opinions, and responsibility always remained his.
Overall, my role was not to replace thinking or decision-making, but to support it — by asking questions, offering alternatives, and helping document decisions more clearly.
Github Copilot
Github Copilot has become a regular part of my development workflow both at work and in side projects. One area I focused on was learning how to better prompt and instruct Copilot to generate more accurate and useful code. As most developers, I had to learn how to work with the tool effectively, understanding its strengths and limitations.
AI Context Kit
From these experiences I also started a new Open Source project called AI Context Kit. This project aims to make it easier for developers to create and share context between AI tools. I am testing it for myself at the moment and plan to release it officially in early 2026. If you are interested, you can follow the progress on GitHub .
Claude (Code)
As I continued to explore AI tools, I tried to use Claude and Claude Code to see if it could replace ChatGPT and Github Copilot. I started my AI Context Kit project with Claude and Claude Code and went quite far with it. Then, I tried to connect Claude Code in the browser to my GitHub account as they offered a 250$ credit to test it out that did not count towards the normal usage.
I had some problems connecting it to GitHub and had to reconnect it a few times. I got it working at the end and went away from my computer for sleep. In the morning, I found out that the AI controlled review system had banned my account for suspicious activity. I had to appeal and explain the situation to get my account unbanned. As of writing this, I have not yet received a response from Anthropic regarding the issue.
I did some research and found out that other users had similar problems. They needed to wait for weeks and even months to get their accounts unbanned, which is not acceptable for a developer relying on the tool for work. So I went back to using ChatGPT and Github Copilot.
At work
This year was full of new challenges and opportunities at work. Here is a brief overview:
- I continued to work on our .NET MAUI applications, implementing new features and improving performance.
- I did more backend work with ASP.NET Core and will continue to do so in 2026.
- I took responsibility for the EntraID integration in our mobile applications. I will expand this to the backend implementation in early 2026.
- As I obtained the iSAQB Foundation Level certification, I started to work on creating a software architecture framework with our lead architect. The goal is to standardize our architecture practices and improve the quality of our software solutions on multiple levels. We will continue this work in 2026.
- I joined the company’s internal AI guild, where we try to explore and implement AI tools and solutions in our projects.
Side projects
In addition to my work projects, I also dedicated time to my side projects:
- I shared some of my learnings on automating iOS releases with Github Actions this year in multiple blog posts (find them here).
- As I evolved through the LeadEssentials program, I started planning to move my TwistReader project away from .NET MAUI to Swift and SwiftUI. I plan to start this migration in early 2026.
- I started exploring the ChatGPT API and how to use it for creating a family meal planner application. I had to pause this project due to time constraints, but I learned a lot about working with the API and prompt engineering in general that I can apply to future projects.
- I continued to maintain TimeTraverseHub and made some improvements to the user experience and performance. I will soon reupload the latest version to TestFlight for beta testing.
- Besides the AI Context Kit project mentioned earlier, I also started another AI-related open source project called Awesome arc42 Copilot. This project aims to provide a collection of prompts and templates for using AI tools to support software architecture documentation based on the arc42 template. This project is still in its early stages, and I am currently testing it for myself in certain architecture documentation tasks (both at work and in my side projects).
Personal Life
Health and Fitness
This year had also some personal ups and downs. It started with a big dental surgery in the beginning of 2025, which required some recovery time and patience. I eventually recovered well - only to face another challenge at the beginning of April when I had a gall bladder removal surgery. Again, the recovery was tough, but I managed to get through it. The latter one was especially hard for me as I was well prepared to run a half marathon in early April, which I had to cancel last minute due to the surgery. In early December, I had to undergo a minor surgery on my right foot. This time, the recovery was much easier and I was back on my feet in no time.
Despite these health challenges, I tried my best to stay active and maintain my fitness routine. I kept running regularly and even participated in a few local races. I also tried to maintain a wholesome training routine, using strength training and flexibility exercises to complement my running.
Next year, I plan to participate in a total of four half marathons - two in the spring (Zurich Half Marathon and GP Winterthur Half Marathon) and two in the fall (Greifenseelauf and Wiz Rome Half Marathon). I am already looking forward to these events and will start training for them in early 2026. In between, I will do some local shorter races as B-races.
Family
Family time remained a top priority for me this year. I made sure to spend quality time with my loved ones - regular family dinners, travels and other special occasions. These moments provided me with joy and support throughout the year.
After more than two years since our first cat Amadeus passed away, we finally decided to get a new feline family member. In November, we started to go to a local animal shelter to find a new cat. After a few visits, we found Elina and Miro (siblings), who stole our hearts and adopted us right from the start. We took both of them home to us just yesterday. They are already settling in well and bringing a lot of joy and liveliness to our home.
Looking Ahead to 2026
As I look ahead to 2026, I am excited about the opportunities and challenges that will come my way. As I mentioned earlier, I plan to continue my learning journey with the LeadEssentials program and aim to earn the blue belt. AI tools will continue to play a big role in my work and personal projects. At work, I will continue to focus on architecture work, AI integrations and further improving our internal applications. On the personal side, I will continue to prioritize health, fitness, and family time.
Overall, 2025 has been a big year of growth for me. I am grateful for the experiences, lessons learned and challenges I mastered. I hope you had a great year as well and wish you all the best for the upcoming year!
Until the next post, happy coding, everyone!
The title image is generated with AI (ChatGPT) based on my prompt and the content of this post.