Generative AI is expected to play a key role in augmenting the software workforce, assisting in more than 25% of software design, development, and testing work in the next two years.
According to the Capgemini Research Institute’s latest report, 80% of software professionals believe that, by automating simpler repetitive tasks, generative AI tools and solutions will significantly transform their function, freeing up time for them to focus on higher-value-adding tasks.
More than three quarters of software professionals are confident that generative AI has the potential to boost collaboration with non-technical business teams.
Capgemini Research Institute surveyed 1,098 senior executives (director and above) and 1,092 software professionals (architects, developers, testers, and project managers, among others). Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted with leaders from the industry, partners, and startups, along with several software professionals.
Respondents were based in Singapore, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany, India, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Italy.
Results show that while the generative AI adoption for software engineering is still in its early stages, with nine in 10 organisations yet to scale, the report found that organisations with active generative AI initiatives are already reaping multiple benefits from its adoption. Fostering innovation comes first place (61% of organisations surveyed) followed by improving software quality (49%).
They also saw an improvement of between 7% and 18% (on average) in the productivity of their software engineering functions. For certain specialised tasks, time saving was as high as 35%.
Organisations surveyed highlighted that they plan to leverage the additional time freed up by generative AI for innovative work such as developing new software features (50%) and upskilling (47%). Reducing headcount was the least-adopted route (4%).
New roles, such as generative AI developer, prompt writers or generative AI architect are also emerging.
From better communication to explaining what the code is doing in natural language, generative AI makes the connection between software engineers and other business teams more effective — 78% of software professionals are optimistic about the technology’s potential to enhance collaboration.
According to the survey, generative AI tools are used today by 46% of software engineers for assisting them on tasks. Almost three-quarters agree that generative AI’s potential extends beyond writing code.
While coding assistance is the leading use case, generative AI also has applications in other software development lifecycle activities, such as code modernisation or user experience (UX) design.
Both senior and junior software professionals also report higher levels of satisfaction from using generative AI (respectively 69% and 55%). They see it as a strong enabler and motivator.
However, 63% of software professionals declare using unauthorised generative AI tools to assist them in tasks. This rapid take-up, without proper governance and oversight in place, exposes organisations to functional, security, and legal risks like hallucinated code, code leakage, and IP issues.
“Generative AI has emerged as a powerful technology to assist software engineers, rapidly gaining adoption,” said Pierre-Yves Glever, head of global cloud and custom applications at Capgemini.
“Its impact on coding efficiency and quality is measurable and proven, yet it holds promise for other software activities,” said Glever.
