Amid the rapid advancements in generative artificial intelligence (AI), GitHub wanted to get a better understanding from developers about how new tools—and current workflows—are impacting the overall developer experience.
GitHub surveyed 500 U.S.-based developers at companies with more than 1,000 employees. It found that AI tools are already being widely adopted by developers, that these tools are having a measurable impact on individual productivity and team collaboration and that they will require engineering leaders to adjust how performance is measured.
AI’s Impact on DevEx Is Driving Adoption
The research found that 92% of developers are already using AI coding tools at work. 70% reported that AI coding tools will offer them an advantage at work, with numerous reported benefits driving adoption:
- 81% of developers say AI coding tools will help increase collaboration within their teams and organisations, with security reviews, planning and pair programming identified as significant tasks to benefit.
- 57% believe AI coding tools help them improve their coding language skills, enabling them to upskill.
- 53% believe AI coding tools will make them more productive, particularly by automating parts of their workflow.
- 51% say that AI coding tools will give them more time to focus on solution design, helping them to stay creative.
- 41% believe that AI coding tools can help with preventing burnout, by helping to reduce cognitive effort and freeing up mental capacity and time. In fact, in previous research GitHub conducted, 87% of developers reported that the AI coding tool GitHub Copilot helped them preserve mental effort while completing more repetitive tasks.
Traditional Performance Metrics Need to Evolve in the Age of AI
One-third of developers report that their managers currently assess their performance based on the volume of code they produce (33%). The other top reported metrics for performance are largely output-based: 40% are measured by code quality, 34% by speed of completion, 34% by production incidents and 33% by number of bugs resolved.
However, with the increasing use of AI tools in software development, which often contributes to code volume, engineering leaders will need to ask whether measuring code volume is still the best way to measure productivity and output.
According to GitHub’s research, developers say AI coding tools can help them meet existing performance standards with improved code quality, faster outputs and fewer production-level incidents. They also believe that these metrics should be used to measure their performance beyond code quantity.
- 35% of developers believe they should be measured on collaboration and communication.
- 34% think they should be measured by code quality.
- 34% say they should be measured by the number of bugs or issues resolved.
- 34% claim they should be measured by the time to complete a task.
- 32% contend they should be measured by test coverage.
- 32% believe they should be measured by the velocity and quality of feature delivery.
A New Frontier
Inbal Shani, Chief Product Officer, GitHub, said: “Developers today do more than just write and ship code; they’re [also] expected to navigate a number of tools, environments, and technologies, including the new frontier of generative AI coding tools.”
“But the most important thing for developers isn’t story points or the speed of deployments. It’s the developer experience, which determines how efficiently and productively developers can exceed standards, enter a flow state, and drive impact.
“Ultimately, the way to innovate at scale is to empower developers by improving their productivity, increasing their satisfaction, and enabling them to do their best work—every day. After all, there can be no progress without developers who are empowered to drive impact.”
Archive
- October 2024(44)
- September 2024(94)
- August 2024(100)
- July 2024(99)
- June 2024(126)
- May 2024(155)
- April 2024(123)
- March 2024(112)
- February 2024(109)
- January 2024(95)
- December 2023(56)
- November 2023(86)
- October 2023(97)
- September 2023(89)
- August 2023(101)
- July 2023(104)
- June 2023(113)
- May 2023(103)
- April 2023(93)
- March 2023(129)
- February 2023(77)
- January 2023(91)
- December 2022(90)
- November 2022(125)
- October 2022(117)
- September 2022(137)
- August 2022(119)
- July 2022(99)
- June 2022(128)
- May 2022(112)
- April 2022(108)
- March 2022(121)
- February 2022(93)
- January 2022(110)
- December 2021(92)
- November 2021(107)
- October 2021(101)
- September 2021(81)
- August 2021(74)
- July 2021(78)
- June 2021(92)
- May 2021(67)
- April 2021(79)
- March 2021(79)
- February 2021(58)
- January 2021(55)
- December 2020(56)
- November 2020(59)
- October 2020(78)
- September 2020(72)
- August 2020(64)
- July 2020(71)
- June 2020(74)
- May 2020(50)
- April 2020(71)
- March 2020(71)
- February 2020(58)
- January 2020(62)
- December 2019(57)
- November 2019(64)
- October 2019(25)
- September 2019(24)
- August 2019(14)
- July 2019(23)
- June 2019(54)
- May 2019(82)
- April 2019(76)
- March 2019(71)
- February 2019(67)
- January 2019(75)
- December 2018(44)
- November 2018(47)
- October 2018(74)
- September 2018(54)
- August 2018(61)
- July 2018(72)
- June 2018(62)
- May 2018(62)
- April 2018(73)
- March 2018(76)
- February 2018(8)
- January 2018(7)
- December 2017(6)
- November 2017(8)
- October 2017(3)
- September 2017(4)
- August 2017(4)
- July 2017(2)
- June 2017(5)
- May 2017(6)
- April 2017(11)
- March 2017(8)
- February 2017(16)
- January 2017(10)
- December 2016(12)
- November 2016(20)
- October 2016(7)
- September 2016(102)
- August 2016(168)
- July 2016(141)
- June 2016(149)
- May 2016(117)
- April 2016(59)
- March 2016(85)
- February 2016(153)
- December 2015(150)