Generative AI for Software Engineering Teams
Generative AI is trending in the tech world, but how are software engineering leaders making use of the tool? Which use cases are most promising, and which concerns are top of mind?
One minute insights:
- More than half of respondents say generative AI is currently used in their software engineering department; those who aren’t using it cite security concerns
- For those using generative AI, pair programming is a common use
- ChatGPT is a commonly used tool among respondents whose software engineering departments are using generative AI
- Respondents are excited about generative AI’s use in code generation, but concerned with inaccurate, dated and/or biased results
- Many respondents believe that generative AI will positively impact software engineering
More than half of respondents’ software engineering departments are currently using generative AI, but those who aren’t cite security concerns
Question: What is one way that you believe generative AI will impact software engineering in the future?
Transparency and accountability will help to get more trust on AI
[Generative AI] will help engineers to come up with complex products faster.
For those using generative AI, pair programming is a common use and ChatGPT is a common tool
Respondents whose software engineering departments utilize generative AI (n = 60) use it for AI-assisted pair programming (60%), code generation (52%) and code documentation generation (45%).
More than three-quarters (78%) of respondents whose software engineering department uses generative AI (n = 60) use ChatGPT for generative AI.
Despite using generative AI in their software engineering departments (n = 60), more than half (53%) of these respondents do not have governance policies in place guiding employees on how to use it.
Question: What is one way that you believe generative AI will impact software engineering in the future?
[Generative AI] is going to change the overall TAT [turnaround time] for producing quality code. [It] may eradicate a lot of jobs especially at the junior software developer level.
It will create more volume of new code than we have resources to keep in check
Whether or not their software engineering department uses generative AI, leaders are excited about its use in code generation, but concerned with undesirable results
As for diiculties, respondents identified undesirable results (66%), lack of corporate governance policies (43%) and pushback from leadership (38%) as the biggest challenges associated with using generative AI in software engineering.
Question: What is one way that you believe generative AI will impact software engineering in the future?
I could see that the AI will reduce the eorts involved with coding and will eventually reduce the delivery time. However, the same will be true when companies focus on training the workforce, investing time as well as money.
[Generative AI] will help speed up coding — with human intervention after the main work is done by the AI
Many respondents believe that generative AI will positively impact software engineering and aect staing and hiring
As for the impact on software engineering staing and hiring, 63% believe generative AI will necessitate training for current sta on how to use it. 59% think that new job roles will be created for generative AI initiatives, and 55% think that management candidates will need expertise in generative AI governance.
Question: What is one way that you believe generative AI will impact software engineering in the future?
Low-level software engineering jobs will be replaced by AI.
[Generative AI will] increase productivity to a large extent, [and] create a lot of jobs for software engineers. The department will take a more strategic tack. More jobs will be created to develop a new set of human work tasks — many of them of higher value.
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