A recent report from Gartner predicts that by 2028, a staggering three quarters of enterprise software engineers will incorporate AI code assistants into their workflow. 

This projection would mark a significant surge from the 10% adoption rate observed in early 2023. 

According to a survey from Gartner, representing 598 global respondents in Q3 2023, about 63% of organisations are either piloting, deploying, or have already implemented AI code assistants. 

AI code assistants are not just tools for code generation and completion, but they also serve as collaborative aids that can enhance developers’ efficiency with brainstorming sessions and by evaluating code quality. 

According to analysis from Statista, the top queries for AI code assistants were: Asking questions about software development, generating code, generating comments for code, explaining bugs, and explaining the code. 

What we see here is developers using AI to make their own skills sharper, and better understand their tasks. 

This allows developers to continually refine their skills and proficiency across various programming frameworks, which would ultimately lead to increased satisfaction in their jobs and could possibly lead to increased retention rates. 

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“Software engineering leaders must determine ROI and build a business case as they scale their rollouts of AI code assistants,” said Philip Walsh, Sr principal analyst at Gartner.

“However, traditional ROI frameworks steer engineering leaders toward metrics centred on cost reduction. This narrow perspective fails to capture the full value of AI code assistants.”

According to Gartner, traditional ROI frameworks fail to capture the full value and capabilities of AI code assistants. It suggests that software engineering leaders reframe the ROI conversation from cost reduction to value generations. 

“Calculating time savings on code generation is a good starting point for building a more comprehensive value story,” continued Walsh.

“To convey the full enterprise value story for AI code assistants, software engineering leaders should connect value enablers to impacts, and then analyse the overall return to the organisation.”