• 50% of developers only use AI to impress and reassure bosses
• 47% said they were judged on how much they use AI rather than the quality of their work
• Work engagement, job security, and career anxiety have all been cited as pressures caused by AI adoption among developers

New research claims many developers are still not massive fans of AI, and most find its introduction into the workplace to be anxiety inducing.

While understanding that massive budgets are behind AI implementation, many of the devs surveyed across the US and Europe revealed that their use of AI was mostly performative.

While reassuring managers and the C-suite might be laudable, it appears to come with a price, as career anxiety among developers concerning the use of AI and their place in an organization that uses the technology is high.

By implementing AI technology and practices without concern for existing processes, organizations seem to have left their software developers feeling uneasy about AI and how they’re expected to use it.

Adaptavist’s survey of 1,000 software developers in the UK, US, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain indicates that specialists feel an expectation to use the technology, whether it has any meaningful result or not.

Furthermore, they feel that they’re using it performatively rather than productively.

The survey reveals some worrying numbers. With 50% of devs using AI simply because they need to demonstrate that they can use it, and 47% judged on how much they use AI rather than the quality of their work, it seems there is a disconnect between organizations adopting AI and knowing what they want from the technology.

This is emphasized with the result of 58% of developers noting that AI use is becoming metric of performance or has been added to their KPIs.

All of this means developers that are increasingly perturbed about their long-term prospects (54%), and a fear of losing their jobs if they don’t use AI (37%).

A fertile exodus

What might these results mean for businesses and organizations looking to keep their developers happy?

"A good Developer Experience is critical not only to the wellbeing of developers themselves, but to organisational growth and innovation," noted Matt Saunders, DevOps Lead at The Adaptavist Group.

"It therefore must not be undermined by adoption targets, usage metrics, or a culture that rewards being seen to use AI over actually using it well. Together, they are creating fertile ground for an exodus, one KPI at a time.”

The challenge on organizations embracing (or overcompensating on) AI need to move their focus away from adoption, and measure AI outcomes instead, says Saunders.

“Organisations that want to hold onto engineering talent need to stop measuring AI adoption and start measuring its outcomes, and give developers the time, autonomy and support to use the technology in ways that genuinely improve their work, rather than simply prove they are using it.”