The research suggests that AI-based tools or agents boost productivity and code quality, but may reduce delivery stability.
More than 75% of developers and IT professionals rely on artificial intelligence (AI) for at least one daily professional responsibility, but 39% say they don’t trust AI-generated code, according to Google’s 2024 State of DevOps report.
Google Cloud’s DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) team surveyed nearly 3,000 technology professionals globally and AI adoption is increasing rapidly within technology shops.
Over three-quarters (76%) of respondents said they rely on AI for tasks like code writing, summarizing information, and code explanation. At least 81% said their companies have shifted technology resources into developing AI.
AI adoption was positively correlated with increased flow, productivity, job satisfaction, code quality, and internal documentation quality. At least 67% reported that AI is helping them improve their code.
So far, so good. Overall, a 25% increase in AI adoption in development shops is associated with the following metrics:
However, the researchers noted AI adoption is also associated with a decrease in delivery stability: « AI adoption may negatively impact software delivery performance », according to Nathen Harvey and Derek DeBellis, both with DORA.
