GitHub survey finds nearly all developers using AI coding tools

More than 97% of respondents to GitHub’s AI in software development 2024 survey said they had used AI coding tools at work, but only 38% of US-based developers said their organizations actively encouraged adoption. The survey report was released on August 20.

Of the four countries featured—the USA, Brazil, Germany, and India—only the United States found a shortage of organizations actively encouraging adoption. The survey polled 2,000 non-student, enterprise respondents, with 500 from each country. The majority of respondents were developers, engineers, and programmers.

The survey found that 59% to 88% of respondents across all markets reported their companies were “actively encouraging” or “allowing” use of AI coding tools. Also, software development teams were recognizing more benefits with AI coding tools than previously found, the report said. Most respondents reported a perceived increase in code quality when using AI coding tools. The majority of respondents (ranging from 61% in Germany to 73% in the US) were optimistic about the potential of AI coding tools to moderately improve or significantly enhance the ability to meet customer requirements.

The survey was conducted online from February 26 through March 18 of this year. Other findings include the following:

60% to 71% of respondents reported that AI coding tools make it “easy” to adopt a new programming language or understand an existing codebase.

A large portion of respondents, ranging from 59% in India to 67% in the US, said security teams manually review codebase changes.

17% to 27% of respondents said they used AI coding tools only at work, challenging the notion that all developers use these tools outside of work.

48% work in organizations that actively promote AI reported their toolchains were “simple” to use.

GitHub is perhaps best known for its AI-based Copilot coding assistant tool.