AI-powered software tools are widely used to assist software engineers. However, there is still a need to understand the productivity benefits of such tools for software engineers. In addition to short-term benefits, there is a question of how adopting AI-generated solutions affects the quality of software over time (e.g., maintainability). To provide some insight on these questions, we conducted a survey among software practitioners. We conclude that AI tools significantly increase the productivity of software engineers. However, the productivity benefits reduce as projects become more complex. The results also show that there are no significant negative influences of adopting AI-generated solutions on software quality, as long as those solutions are limited to smaller code snippets. However, when solving larger and more complex problems, AI tools generate solutions of a lower quality, indicating the need for architects to perform problem decomposition and solution integration.

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The Impact of AI-Generated Solutions on Software Architecture and Productivity: Results from a Survey Study

  • Giorgio Amasanti,
  • Jasmin Jahić

摘要

AI-powered software tools are widely used to assist software engineers. However, there is still a need to understand the productivity benefits of such tools for software engineers. In addition to short-term benefits, there is a question of how adopting AI-generated solutions affects the quality of software over time (e.g., maintainability). To provide some insight on these questions, we conducted a survey among software practitioners. We conclude that AI tools significantly increase the productivity of software engineers. However, the productivity benefits reduce as projects become more complex. The results also show that there are no significant negative influences of adopting AI-generated solutions on software quality, as long as those solutions are limited to smaller code snippets. However, when solving larger and more complex problems, AI tools generate solutions of a lower quality, indicating the need for architects to perform problem decomposition and solution integration.