Gartner Research

Assessing How Generative AI Can Improve Developer Experience

Published: 27 June 2023

Summary

Generative AI has the potential to improve developer experience, but uncontrolled use presents challenges. Software development technical professionals should assess the potential benefits and required processes for successful adoption of generative AI augmented development tools.

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Overview

Key Findings
  • Generative AI tools currently offer incremental, quality-of-life improvements to developers rather than significant boosts in productivity.

  • Many of the benefits can be obtained in other ways (e.g., search engines, traditional code generation tools or development forums), but using these methods may be slower or involve more context switching.

  • Developers that report success using generative AI are consistent in the areas where they find the tools useful — generating boilerplate code, creating test artifacts, writing documentation and refactoring code.

  • Using generative AI tools to augment development carries risks relating to code quality (including security and performance), intellectual property (IP), cognitive bias, and

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Analysts:

Matt Brasier

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