This is just one of the many insights gleaned from GitHub’s The developer wishlist survey, which asked 500 software developers at enterprise companies a series of questions relating to their day-to-day work in 2023 — and, most pertinently, how AI has impacted it.

Breaking down the finding that 92% of devs use AI coding tools, 67% said they use them both in work and outside of it, 25% said they use them at work, and 6% said they only used such tools outside of work.

Underpinning the want to utilise AI coding tools is the belief that they can help devs to meet performance standards through heightened code quality, faster outputs, and fewer production-level incidents. In fact, 70% of developers noted that AI tools offer them an advantage in their work.

What’s more, developers think that using such tools is an effective way of upskilling while at work: 57% of respondents said AI coding tools help them to deepen their coding language skills, for instance.

Individual performance aside, a large majority of respondents — 81% — said that AI coding tools will foster greater collaboration within their teams and organisations. Security reviews, planning, and pair programming were cited as the most notable points of collaboration to be bolstered by such tools.

Interestingly, while AI coding tools are being positioned as conducive to enhancing productivity and collaboration — both individually and collectively — the survey suggests that developers don’t think these tools are fundamentally changing the software development lifecycle, but rather bringing extra efficiencies to it.

In terms of AI in relation to the knotty issue of burnout, 41% of GitHub’s survey respondents said that AI coding tools can help with prevention of burnout. According to a separate study conducted by Haystack Analytics, the majority (83%) of software devs are suffering from burnout.

Recommended

• Roundtable | What Can Be Learned From Estonia’s Tech Success?
• New Dundee R&D Lab to Help Drive Next-gen Visual Effects Tech
• Sunak: Ten Ways the UK Is the ‘Best’ for Tech Businesses

Taking a step back from AI and looking at the daily work of devs more generally, the survey discovered that developers spend the same amount of time waiting for builds and tests as they do writing new code, suggesting that the time-consuming wait is still a persistent problem.

Further, obstacles such as waiting on code reviews, builds, and test runs and are having the biggest impact on overall satisfaction.

The survey also highlighted how the aspects that devs value the most and want to dedicate the appropriate amount of time to are in conflict with what their performance is measured on.

As an example of that, the respondents said that they’re measured on the number of incidents they resolve, but they believe that it’s the approach they take to handling and resolving those issues which is more important.

Additionally, the respondents believe that communication and collaboration is just as important as code quality when it comes to measuring performance, and should be treated as such.

GitHub’s full report on the survey’s findings can be read here.