A survey of 604 software developers and engineering professionals found that while 61% work for organizations that are using artificial intelligence (AI) to some extent to build software, nearly two-thirds (65 %) still experience burnout. In fact, after maintaining a high-performing team (47%), burnout (41%) is the second most common challenge, survey respondents cited.
A survey conducted by Kickstand Research from Jellyfish, a platform for managing software engineering teams, found that a full 94% of organizations that have adopted AI say it has. positively impacted their team’s productivity, with 81% reporting AI increases. Code quality
A total of 84% also said that AI frees up time to focus on higher-value activities, according to the survey.
However, the survey illustrates that there is a disconnect between managers (48%) and participating developers/engineers. More than three-quarters of executives (76%) believe their team has embraced AI, while only 52% of rank-and-file respondents agreed.
Among non-AI users, 48% said their team didn’t adopt the technology because of security concerns, followed by just a third (34%) citing a lack of skills. Just under a quarter (24%) said budget constraints prevented them from using AI. Specifically, 19% of executives who work for organizations that have not embraced AI see it as a gimmick.
With so much hyperbole thrown around when it comes to AI, software engineering teams should lean into it, said Andrew Lau, CEO of Jellyfish. He added that AI agents and copilots are bringing an inevitable change in software engineering that will change and influence the role of software engineering.
AI models will become more common.
Long-term, there’s no doubt that AI will enable software engineering teams to become more productive as incremental advances are made, Lau said. For example, AI models trained for specific domains such as software engineering will become more common, he noted. Many managers and entrepreneurs are overestimating the impact AI will have on software development in the short term, however, he added.
In fact, 43% of developers and engineers surveyed said their company’s leadership is out of touch with the challenges facing software engineering teams. Just under a third (31%) said their team lacked sufficient visibility into project status, and more than a third (37%) said their team’s performance over the past year, forecasting and Productivity has declined.
Overall, more than two-thirds said their engineering organization increased budgets in the past year, with 57% of engineering leaders noting that the size of their engineering team increased in the past 12 months. More than half of all respondents (56%) expect headcount in their department to increase over the next 12 months.
However, more than a third (34%) of developers/engineers do not perceive growth potential in their current role, with just under a third (32%) considering a career change. Nevertheless, 80% of all respondents said that the work they do is rewarding.
Thanks to the rise of AI, more software will probably be developed in the next few years than in the entire previous decade. The challenge now becomes how to manage the volume of code that is going to grow faster than ever imagined.