Generative AI has hit the mainstream with software developers. According to a recent GitHub survey, more than one million developers actively use GitHub Copilot. More importantly, these developers increasingly use AI as “a new building block in developing applications.” In other words, AI is becoming just as important to software development as tools like Visual Studio Code.
There is, however, a catch. Not everyone benefits equally from AI. As Addy Osmani, an engineering leader with Google’s Chrome team, writes, “AI tools help experienced developers more than beginners.” I’ve talked about this before (here and here), but Osmani makes this argument so lucidly it’s worth repeating, particularly with so many developers adding AI-powered coding assistants to their development process.
All the kids are into tab completion
RedMonk’s Kate Holterhoff has combed through online forums and in-person interviews to identify the “Top 10 Things Developers Want from their AI Code Assistants in 2024.” It’s a great post, filled with useful observations like, “Tab completion is the killer feature in AI code assistants.” Notice, however, that Dr. Holterhoff doesn’t need to talk about whether or not developers want AI coding assistants—they do. The question is, how are they using them?
