75% of Programers Will Use AI Code Assistants by 2028

75% of enterprise software engineers will use AI code assistants by 2028, up from less than 10% in early 2023, as stated by the global tech research company Gartner.

According to a Gartner survey of 598 global responders, Sixty-three percent of organizations are piloting, deploying, or have already deployed AI code assistants in the third quarter of 2023.

Philip Walsh, Senior Principal Analyst at Gartner, stressed the importance of software engineering leaders assessing the return on investment (ROI) and building a business case as they scale their rollouts of AI code assistants. However, Walsh warned that traditional ROI frameworks tend to focus solely on cost reduction metrics, failing to encompass the full value that AI code assistants bring to the table.

Walsh also highlighted a mismatch potential between IT leadership's expectations and software teams' experience regarding productivity, As vendors selling AI-assisted coding tools claim significant increases in coder productivity, with some asserting up to a 50 percent uptick, while 34% of CIOs and technology leaders thought AI code generation might revolutionize their software development efforts.

He added: "That's some really high expectations from the productivity gains from these AI code assistants".

AI code assistants offer many capabilities beyond simply generating and completing code. They serve as collaborative assistants, working alongside developers to stimulate brainstorming sessions and enhance the quality of the code produced. By empowering developers to learn and improve their skills across various programming frameworks continuously, these AI assistants contribute to higher job satisfaction and increased employee retention. This, in turn, helps save costs that would otherwise be associated with turnover. The presence of AI code assistants in the development process brings added value by facilitating collaboration, skill development, and overall efficiency for software engineers.