Your developers need smarter AI tools

A majority of developers are using AI tools, but their trust in those tools lags far behind adoption rates. That’s one of the insights that stood out most clearly from the results of our annual survey of more than 65,000 developers around the world.

It’s no surprise that three in four respondents (76%) to our 2024 Developer Survey are using or planning to use AI tools in their development process this year (compared with 70% of respondents last year). And many developers look fondly on AI tools: 72% describe their feelings about AI coding tools as favorable or very favorable. Last year, however, the percentage of devs with a favorable or very favorable view of AI tools stood at 77%. This decline in favorability from last year suggests that some developers are disappointed in the output of the tools they used.

As that decline hints, developers remain fractured when it comes to trust in AI. Only about 42% of respondents said they trust the accuracy of AI output in their workflows, while 31% say they don’t trust it. About 27% said they neither trusted nor distrusted AI output.

Clearly, devs are a long way from placing complete trust in AI-powered tools, even as they recognize the benefits: 81% of respondents agreed that AI tools boost their productivity and 62% said they speed up learning. (For respondents learning to code, 71% said AI tools sped up the process.)

Developer confidence in AI tools to perform complex tasks also has a long way to go. Almost half of professional developers (45%) said AI tools are bad or very bad at handling complex tasks. When asked for their top concerns about AI within an organization or team, 66% of our respondents cited a distrust of the output of AI tools, while 63% said the tools lack crucial context necessary to understanding their organization’s codebase, internal architecture, and institutional knowledge.

And they don’t think it’s their fault or the fault of the org: Only 30% of respondents said that user error or lack of training is to blame for the challenges they encounter with AI tools at work, less than half the percentage of those who simply don’t trust the AI tool.

In summary:

• AI tool usage is increasing, but trust of AI tools lags far behind.
• Devs aren’t viewing AI tools as favorably as they did last year.
• Devs aren’t confident in the ability of AI tools to handle complex tasks.

So what should organizations and team leaders take away from these results? We have a few suggestions for how to think about AI tools in light of our latest survey data:

• Devs don’t want just any shiny new tool; they want AI to add value within the tools and workflows they’re already using successfully.
• Technical teams need AI tools that connect them with the knowledge they need, when they need it. In spite of wide availability and high adoption rates, it’s evident from our survey results that AI tools still don’t alleviate the burden on developers to look for answers to their questions while also spending time answering others’ questions.
• For developers to trust the output of an AI tool or feel confident assigning the AI more complex tasks, they need a tool steeped in community knowledge and human experience, with validated sources that capture the full context of questions and answers.

Over the next year, developers agree, AI tools will become more integrated with their workflows for documenting (81%), testing (80%), and writing code (76%). Organizations should be focused on how to give their teams greater (and justifiable!) trust in the output of AI, how to choose AI tools that will integrate seamlessly with developers’ existing tools and workflows, and how developers can get the most value from AI coding tools.

That’s why we recently announced new AI features that supercharge developer workflows, connecting your teams with proven knowledge, upgrading the search experience, and bringing the power of Stack Overflow into your coding environment.