Software developers in the US are by far the most bullish on AI coding tools
The popularity of AI coding tools has skyrocketed over the last year and a half, with developers flocking to these solutions to supercharge their daily workflows.
A host of major industry players, including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon Web Services (AWS), have all unveiled dedicated tools for software development.
A new research paper shows there’s a growing geographic disparity in terms of the popularity of AI coding tools.
The paper, titled ‘Who is using AI to code? Global diffusion and impact of generative AI’, examined the use of AI in software development globally, finding that US developers are among the most frequent users.
Researchers tracked AI-generated Python functions in GitHub to identify the regions where the technology was being used most frequently, noting that by December 2024 around 30.1% Python functions came from US contributors.
This comes in stark contrast to counterparts elsewhere globally, researchers found. Around 24.3% of Python functions came from users based in Germany, while France and India stood at 23.2% and 21.6% respectively.
Notably, contributions from Russia and China lagged significantly, recorded at just 15.4% and 11.7% respectively.
Broadly speaking, US developers have led consistently over the last few years, the paper found, particularly since the advent of the generative AI ‘boom’ and running in parallel to various model releases since late 2022.
