Seventy percent of professional developers already use AI tools in their workflows or plan to use them. Keep reading to learn how this trend is reshaping software development.
"The future of software development lies in the seamless integration of human creativity and AI capabilities. Developers who harness the power of AI while bringing their unique problem-solving skills to the table will lead in this new era."
- Ariel Katz, CEO of Sisence
AI in software development is transforming entire industries - from smartphone apps that shape how we communicate to innovations like blockchain, microservices, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Even though advances like cloud computing and improved mobile access enable us to connect and sync data across multiple systems and users, building these software solutions remains a complex task.
Over the years, many tools and programming languages have been developed to simplify software development, and today, artificial intelligence (AI) is the latest tool changing the game. So, how is AI being used in software development?
AI is being increasingly integrated into the development process in a couple of ways, such as automating complex coding tasks and streamlining testing and debugging processes. A recent study found that programmers using AI could code 126% more projects per week.
By using AI at every stage of the software product development life cycle (PDLC), organizations can help product managers, engineers, and their teams of developers focus on more important tasks instead of repetitive work. AI software development can speed up processes, improve product quality, attract more users, boost customer satisfaction, and encourage innovation in the long run.
This article will explore AI in software development and how it can improve productivity. We’ll also walk through how companies like Duolingo, Call Box, and Warezio use AI tools for specific stages of their PDLC.
Evaluating and ensuring the quality of software products before delivery can be complicated. Software bugs and broken code modules are common development issues that may lead to errors in the final product. To understand the impact of these errors in the IT sector, consider that in 2020, poorly developed software cost the U.S. economy $2.08 trillion alone. This puts pressure on developers to deliver high-quality products quickly, resulting in long working hours, increased stress, and sometimes rushed solutions that lack long-term reliability.
Optimizing software project management and boosting security are significant challenges in software development. Managing every stage of the development process and keeping track of all the tasks involved can be daunting. Moreover, identifying and fixing security issues during and after development is essential for protecting sensitive data and maintaining users' trust.
These challenges contribute to significant developer toil, which wastes time and increases stress. According to Forbes, developers spend about 33% of their time on such repetitive tasks. Introducing tools like artificial intelligence in software testing is a great way to mitigate these challenges and ease developer toil.
As Ariel Katz, CEO of Sisence, explains, ”It’s a game-changer. It's not just about automating tasks; it's about enabling developers to think and work at a much higher level and focus on the strategic aspects of their projects."
Here’s a quick glimpse at some other ways that AI software development is reshaping software PDLC:
Next, explore case studies showcasing how enterprises successfully implement AI in software development.
Duolingo, a popular language learning app with over 500 million users, started by focusing on building its mobile apps and infrastructure. As the company grew, it became clear that it needed to boost its engineering capabilities. With over 300 developers on board, Duolingo faced the challenge of ensuring that its team could concentrate on high-level coding instead of getting bogged down by repetitive tasks.
Duolingo turned to support from what you could consider an AI software developer to address this issue. The company began leveraging AI-generated code, adopting tools like GitHub Copilot - an AI-powered pair programmer that offers autocomplete-style suggestions to streamline the coding process. This integration helped accelerate their workflow, enabling developers to work more efficiently.
As a result of adopting AI, Duolingo has reduced the time developers spend switching between different tasks and writing repetitive code. This has made their work more efficient, improving overall productivity by 10-20%. Duolingo CTO Severin Hacker agrees, stating, “A tool like GitHub Copilot is so impactful at large companies because suddenly engineers can make impactful changes to other developers’ code with little previous exposure.
Spotting and resolving bugs in complex software programs is another daily daunting challenge many developers face. However, developers use AI tools to find and fix these bugs faster.
According to Gartner, by 2027, 80% of enterprises will have integrated AI-augmented testing tools into their software engineering toolkit. Meanwhile, companies like Warezio have already adopted AI for this purpose.
Warezio is a SaaS startup that protects digital content from piracy. As its user base grew, the software development team faced a company-wide dilemma: despite rigorous end-to-end tests and manual checks on both the backend and front end, some bugs and errors still slipped through. These elusive issues often appeared only under specific conditions - such as with certain users or on particular web browser versions.
Warezio’s solution came from Latta AI, an AI in software testing tool that automates bug detection and fixes. When a user reports an issue, Latta AI captures session details, analyzes the problem, and identifies the root cause. It then generates a code fix and pushes the update to the repository - all without manual intervention. This allows developers to focus on innovation instead of routine debugging.
The CTO of Warezio, Jan Vavřínek, pointed out, “Latta has allowed us to quickly identify and fix bugs, which has greatly improved the efficiency of our development work. It gives us the peace of mind to focus on innovation instead of constantly debugging bugs that also need to be addressed immediately.”
Miscommunication and inefficient workflows can derail business operations, drain resources, and hinder productivity. However, AI can help alleviate these issues. By 2030, AI is expected to handle 80% of all project management tasks.
For example, Call Box, a generative AI-powered call-tracking leader, faced a similar issue. They struggled with outdated project management tools that hindered detailed tracking, sprint management, and delivery predictability. This inefficiency made it hard to scale and meet growing customer demands.
Call Box adopted Monday dev - a modern, agile AI project management solution to overcome these challenges. The platform uses machine learning to automate routine tasks, such as assigning work based on historical data and current workload. It integrates seamlessly with Zendesk to auto-route customer requests into the appropriate queues. Live dashboards powered by AI continuously analyze project data, providing real-time insights and predictions that help teams anticipate delays and adjust priorities on the fly.
With monday dev’s AI-driven features, Call Box increased quarterly developer throughput by over 15%, reduced new developer training time by 90%, and cut post-release bugs by more than 66%. This example of AI in software development resulted not only in streamlined project execution but also in the technical intelligence needed to forecast resource needs and maintain high delivery standards.
As we've seen in the above-mentioned case studies, the advent of AI in software development brings many benefits to businesses. Here are some of the other key advantages that AI software development offers:
Looking ahead to the end of 2025, several trends are set to define AI in software development further. For instance, technologies like voice recognition, image processing, and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) make processes faster and more accurate. Meanwhile, agent-based architectures are helping teams build more dynamic and customizable software by letting different parts of a system work together more seamlessly.
At the same time, more companies are moving toward cloud-native development, replacing old desktop apps with scalable, cloud-based solutions. And as AI grows, robust security measures will be crucial to protect against new threats like voice cloning and data breaches.
Overall, these trends boost efficiency and flexibility and pave the way for a brighter future in software development. Companies that embrace these AI innovations early on will be well-positioned to drive creativity, strengthen security, and achieve sustainable growth in our increasingly digital world.