72% of developers who have tried AI coding tools now use them every day, according to Sonar’s recent State of Code Developer Survey report. And, says Anirban Chatterjee in the related blog post, this “represents a fundamental shift” in how software is developed. 

The survey report details how developers say they are using AI, as follows:

• 88% use it for prototypes and proofs of concept
• 83% for internal, non-critical production software
• 73% for customer-facing applications
• 58% for business-critical or mission-critical services

However, the report also looks at how developers rank AI’s effectiveness for specific tasks. For example, developers report finding AI more effective for writing documentation than for code review or debugging tasks. Specific AI adoption/effectiveness rankings include:

• Writing documentation (74% adoption / 74% effectiveness)
• Vibe coding (48% adoption / 62% effectiveness)
• Generating tests (75% / 59%)
• Code review (55% / 47%)
• Debugging (65% / 44%)
• Adding or updating functionality to existing code (76% / 42%)

As Chatterjee notes in the blog post, AI adoption “hasn’t led to a simple, linear boost in productivity. Instead, it has created a new bottleneck at the verification stage, with more work now required to review code.”

Read more at Sonar.