tl;dr: AI functions as a situational force multiplier - providing modest, uneven boosts that augment rather than transform engineering productivity. Individual developers and those working on “new” projects see speed boosts with AI tools, but these gains aren’t (yet) translating to overall team productivity:
- AI excels at greenfield projects but struggles with complex legacy codebases
- 84% of devs use AI tools; only 60% view them favorably, down from 70% in 2023
- Studies show 20-30% productivity improvements, far from “10x” claims
- Most use basic autocomplete features, not full autonomous coding agents
- 66% cite AI’s “almost correct” solutions their biggest time sink due to debugging
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