PowerShell Wisdom from 35 Years in the Trenches with Jeff Hicks

About this episode

Jeff Hicks discusses the PowerShell community, the impact of AI on IT professionals, and the importance of foundational learning in scripting.

With PowerShell + DevOps Global Summit 2026 opening this Monday, April 13th, this episode brings back one of the most respected names in the PowerShell community: Jeff Hicks. Andrew sits down with Jeff to dig into what makes the Summit special, the organic community that grew from those earliest events, and what it actually feels like to watch people go from struggling beginners to confident PowerShell practitioners. They also get into the big question hanging over everyone in IT right now: what does AI actually mean for the future of PowerShell professionals? Jeff shares his take on the "squishy bits" of scripting that AI still can't replicate, why learning the core PowerShell paradigm matters more than ever, and how he personally uses AI as a collaborator rather than a shortcut. It's a conversation about community, craft, and what it means to actually know your tools. Key Takeaways: Learn the foundation first, tools second. Jeff's consistent message over decades of teaching: don't start with Azure commands or specific modules. Start with the PowerShell paradigm — objects, the pipeline, managing at scale — and the rest becomes much easier to pick up over time. AI is a co-pilot…

People in this episode

Host: Andrew

Guest: Jeff Hicks

Topics covered

• PowerShell
• DevOps
• AI in IT
• community building
• scripting
• professional development

Keywords

• PowerShell
• DevOps Summit
• AI
• scripting
• community
• foundational learning
• technical hurdles

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: PowerShell + DevOps Global Summit, PowerShell, AI, PDQ.com

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