Last year, the 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey reported on the development community’s embrace of AI code assistants. Of more than 1,700 respondents, 76% indicated that they’re using or planning to use AI code assistants. According to Gartner, “by 2028, it is expected that 90% of enterprise software engineers will utilize AI code assistants, a significant increase from less than 14% in early 2024.” We believe that’s a huge increase, corresponding to a nearly 60% compound annual growth rate.
What Are AI Code Assistants?
AI code assistants, also known as AI code companions, are tools to help developers generate and analyze software. The assistants use large language models (LLMs) trained for coding languages, like Java and Python. Software developers prompt AI code assistants with a combination of natural language and code snippets to aid in their jobs, resulting in higher productivity and quality, new learning and insights, and so on.
AI code assistants often integrate into developers’ preferred programming environments, such as Microsoft Visual Studio Code and JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA, and typically have the following capabilities:
- Generate code snippets to fulfill a developer’s request.
- Upgrade legacy code into a newer version.
- Translate code into different languages.
- Describe or explain code to facilitate learning.
- Generate documentation as part of the DevOps process.
- Create test cases and artifacts that span multiple scenarios.
Can AI Code Assistants Increase Developer Productivity?
AI code assistants help improve developers’ efficiency by summarizing, explaining, answering and ultimately offloading the creation of necessary but “not necessarily fun” boilerplate code. The more mundane tasks a developer can shift to an AI helper, the more time they have to do other, more rewarding work.
Michele Rosen, IDC research manager in the low-code, no-code and intelligent developer technologies practice, wrote in the introduction to IDC Innovators: GenAI Coding Assistants, 2024: “Organizations are increasingly looking to GenAI [generative AI] coding assistants to help increase developer productivity amid the continuing shortage of technical talent. The ability of these assistants to generate, explain and document code represents an opportunity for organizations to accelerate and simplify the development of digital solutions.”
The potential impact is material. Gartner projects that, “by 2028, systematic adoption of AI code assistants in 2023 will result in at least 36% compounded developer productivity growth.” In our opinion, that is massive.
Can AI Code Assistants Increase Developer Satisfaction?
Research indicates that developer productivity is much more than simply time spent (or saved) writing code. A person’s productivity is also influenced by their satisfaction and well-being, their ability to communicate and collaborate effectively, and — especially for developers — their ability to achieve and maintain a flow state.
Developers can derive satisfaction from using AI code assistants because they can remove the drudgery of repetitive and unfulfilling tasks, such as creating standard blocks of code and generating routine documentation. And, to the extent that these tools can prevent context switching — when one is interrupted or needs to do something else because the current task is blocked — developers can remain in flow and keep the intellectual juices flowing.
Can AI Code Assistants Boost an Organization’s Bottom Line?
Increased job satisfaction and retention can improve organizational results by minimizing the cost and disruption of employee turnover. Happier developers tend to stay longer in their jobs than those who aren’t as happy.
Job retention is a gift that keeps on giving. Teams stay intact, mentors stay engaged and junior developers come to view the organization as a great place to learn, build and grow their skills. Satisfied developers generate higher quality applications, which lead to more satisfied customers and ultimately higher profit with lower churn. It’s a virtuous cycle where everybody wins.
Does Oracle Offer an AI Code Companion?
In May 2024, we announced Oracle Code Assist, an AI code companion designed to help Oracle and NetSuite customers boost developer velocity and enhance code consistency. Oracle Code Assist is currently in beta and initially optimized for Java; it is being used via plugins for both the Visual Studio Code and IntelliJ IDEA developer environments. User feedback is positive with particular praise pertaining to generation of unit tests, documentation and legacy code explanation.
Learn more about Oracle Code Assist or other generative AI solutions.
The preceding is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, timing, and pricing of any features or functionality described for Oracle’s products may change and remains at the sole discretion of Oracle Corporation.
The post What Are AI Code Assistants and How Should You Use Them? appeared first on The New Stack.
