Embark on a transformative journey with generative AI in software development. Discover how enterprises are venturing into uncharted territory and what lies ahead on this exciting new path. MIT Technology Review Insights delved into the impact of generative AI on the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), surveying over 300 business leaders to unravel how they are leveraging this technology in their software and product lifecycles.
The survey results unveil the untapped potential of generative AI to revolutionize software development. While adoption is widespread and gaining momentum, there are still untouched opportunities waiting to be explored. This report navigates through the projected advancements in this realm and discusses how emerging innovations, like agentic AI, could bring about the technology’s grand promises.
Key findings from the survey include:
The Future Impact of Generative AI in SDLC: Only 12% of respondents believe that generative AI has fundamentally changed their software development processes currently. However, a vast majority (69%) anticipate substantial changes in the SDLC across organizations within the next one to ten years.
Universal Adoption, Yet Incomplete Integration: While 94% of respondents confirm using generative AI in some capacity for software development, only a fraction (20%) consider it a well-integrated component of their SDLC. A significant portion is still in the initial stages of experimentation or individual adoption.
Diverse Applications of Generative AI: Beyond code generation, generative AI is utilized in various phases of the SDLC, including designing new features, streamlining requirements, testing, bug detection, and enhancing code quality.
Achieving Expectations and Beyond: Despite the room for growth in integration, nearly half of the respondents (46%) believe that generative AI is either meeting or exceeding expectations in their software development workflows.
AI Agents: The Next Chapter: The future holds advanced AI tools like assistants and agents, with potential efficiency gains, cost savings, improved throughput, and accelerated time to market, as envisioned by 49% of business leaders.
This content was produced by Insights, the custom content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not written by MIT Technology Review’s editorial staff.