A survey of 604 software developers and engineering professionals finds that while 61% work for organizations that are employing artificial intelligence (AI) to build software to some degree nearly two-thirds (65%) still experience burnout. In fact, after maintaining a high-performing team (47%), burnout (41%) is the second most often challenge, survey respondents cited.
Conducted by Kickstand Research on behalf of Jellyfish, a provider of a platform for managing software engineering teams, the survey finds that among organizations that have adopted AI, a full 94% said it positively influenced their team’s productivity, with 81% reporting AI increases the quality of code.
A total of 84% also said AI frees up time to focus on high-value activities, the survey finds.
However, the survey makes it clear there is a disconnect between the managers (48%) and developers/engineers who participated. More than three-quarters of executives (76%) believe their team has embraced AI, while only 52% of the rank-and-file respondents agreed.
Of the non-AI users, 48% said their team had not adopted the technology due to security concerns, followed by just over a third (34%) citing a lack of expertise. Just under a quarter (24%) said budget constraints had prevented them from using AI. Notably, 19% of executives who work for organizations that have not embraced AI view it as a gimmick.
Jellyfish CEO Andrew Lau said that while there is a lot of hyperbole being thrown around when it comes to AI, software engineering teams should lean into it. AI agents and copilots are bringing inevitable change to software engineering that will change and impact the role of software engineering, he added.
AI Models Will Become More Commonplace
Long term, there’s no doubt AI will enable software engineering teams to be more productive as additional advances are made, said Lau. For example, AI models trained for specific domains such as software engineering will become more commonplace, he noted. Many managers and businesspeople in the short term, however, are overestimating the impact AI can in the short term have on software development, he added.
In fact, 43% of the developers and engineers surveyed said feel that leadership at their company is out of the loop regarding the challenges software engineering teams face. Just under a third (31%) said their team lacks sufficient visibility into project status and well over a third (37%) said efficiency, predictability and productivity have all decreased on their team in the past year.
Overall, more than two-thirds said their engineering organization received a budget increase last year, with 57% of engineering leaders noting the size of their engineering team has increased over the past 12 months. More than half (56%) of all respondents expect the headcount in their department to increase over the next 12 months.
However, more than a third (34%) of developers/engineers do not feel the potential for advancement in their current role, with just under a third (32%) considering a career change. Nevertheless, 80% of all respondents said the work they do is rewarding.
Thanks to the rise of AI more software will probably be developed in the next few years than all of the past decade. The challenge now becomes how to manage a volume of code that is about to exponentially increase beyond what was once thought to be ever imaginable.