Adapted from: License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, arXiv:2603.16975v1 [cs.SE] 17 Mar 2026
The State of Generative AI in Software Development: Insights from Literature and a Developer Survey
https://arxiv.org/html/2603.16975v1
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The rapid advancement of Generative Artificial Intelligence is increasingly transforming software development practices across the Software Development Life Cycle.
Among AI-assisted development tools, conversational LLMs such as ChatGPT and assistants integrated directly in the development environment like GitHub Copilot, Amazon CodeWhisperer, JetBrains AI Assistant, and Tabnine have become widely adopted, supporting tasks such as code generation, explanation, and review (Sergeyuk et al., 2025).
Sergeyuk et al. (2025): A. Sergeyuk, Y. Golubev, T. Bryksin, and I. Ahmed
Using AI-based coding assistants in practice: State of affairs, perceptions, and ways forward.
Information and Software Technology 178, pp. 107610.
Empirical studies and field research consistently report productivity gains across development activities, particularly in code optimization (approximately 60 %), bug fixing (26 %), and documentation support (12 %) (Collante et al., 2025).
Collante et al. (2025): A. Collante, S. Abedu, S. Khatoonabadi, A. Abdellatif, E. Alor, and E. Shihab
The Impact of Large Language Models (LLMs) on Code Review Process.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2508.11034 [cs]
Evidence further suggests that less experienced developers benefit disproportionately from AI assistance, achieving higher relative productivity improvements (Brynjolfsson et al., 2023; Dell’Acqua et al., 2023; Ng et al., 2024).
Brynjolfsson et al. (2023): E. Brynjolfsson, D. Li, and L. R. Raymond
Generative AI at work.
Dell’Acqua et al. (2023)
F. Dell’Acqua, E. McFowland, E. R. Mollick, H. Lifshitz-Assaf, K. Kellogg, S. Rajendran, L. Krayer, F. Candelon, and K. R. Lakhani
Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality. SSRN Electronic Journal (en).
Ng et al. (2024): K. K. Ng, L. Fauzi, L. Leow, and J. Ng
Harnessing the Potential of Gen-AI Coding Assistants in Public Sector Software Development.
arXiv (en). Note: arXiv:2409.17434 [cs]
At the same time, studies indicate that code quality generally remains stable or improves despite reduced development time (Shihab et al., 2025; Yadav and Mondal, 2025).
Shihab et al. (2025)
M. I. H. Shihab, C. Hundhausen, A. Tariq, S. Haque, Y. Qiao, and B. W. Mulanda
The Effects of GitHub Copilot on Computing Students’ Programming Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Processes in Brownfield Coding Tasks.
In Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research V.1,
Charlottesville USA, pp. 407–420.
Yadav and Mondal (2025)
D. Yadav and S. Mondal
Evaluating Pre-trained Large Language Models on Zero Shot Prompts for Parallelization of Source Code.
OSF.
Correctness cannot be guaranteed and long-term risks remain, making human validation and oversight essential (Yetiştiren et al., 2023; Atif et al., 2025).
Yetiştiren et al. (2023)
B. Yetiştiren, I. Özsoy, M. Ayerdem, and E. Tüzün
Evaluating the Code Quality of AI-Assisted Code Generation Tools: An Empirical Study on GitHub Copilot, Amazon CodeWhisperer, and ChatGPT.
arXiv (en).
Note: arXiv:2304.10778 [cs]
Atif et al. (2025)
M. Atif, K. Chopra, O. Kilic, T. Wang, Z. Dong, C. Leggett, M. Lin, P. Calafiura, and S. Habib
CelloAI: Leveraging Large Language Models for HPC Software Development in High Energy Physics.
arXiv (en).
Note: arXiv:2508.16713 [cs]
Beyond individual productivity, industry reports highlight broader organizational implications, including accelerated prototyping, shorter time-to-market, and shifting accountability toward product and project leadership (Deniz et al., 2023; Gnanasambandam et al., 2025).
Gnanasambandam et al. (2025)
C. Gnanasambandam, M. Harrysson, and R. Singh
How an AI-enabled software product development life cycle will fuel innovation., Technical report McKinsey.
Deniz et al. (2023)
B. K. Deniz, C. Gnanasambandam, M. Harrysson, A. Hussin, and S. Srivastava
Unleash developer productivity with generative AI., Technical report, McKinsey.
Generative Artificial Intelligence Applications in the Software Development Lifecycle
Planning.
In the planning phase, Generative Artificial Intelligence supports the creation of foundational project artifacts such as scope definitions, timelines, milestone structures, role descriptions, communication plans, and risk assessments (Barcaui and Monat, 2023; Hughes et al., 2025; Maggoo et al., 2025).
Barcaui and Monat (2023): A. Barcaui and A. Monat
Who is better in project planning?Generative artificial intelligence or project managers?., Project Leadership and Society 4, pp. 100101.
AI systems are also used to conduct market analyses, synthesize competitive information, and formulate product goals and visions (Lechner et al., 2025; Dell’Acqua et al., 2023).
Lechner et al. (2025): C. Lechner, N. Lang, S. Handschuh, O. Bouffault, and J. Cooper
Can GenAI do your next strategy task? Not yet., California Management Review.
Cost estimation and story point approximation have likewise been explored as application areas (Wagner and Wagner, 2024).
Wagner and Wagner (2024): P. Wagner and R. Wagner
The Evolution of Technology in Artificial Intelligence and Its Impact on Project Management.
In Innovative Methods in Computer Science and Computational Applications in the Era of Industry 5.0, D. J. Hemanth, U. Kose, B. Patrut, and M. Ersoy (Eds.),
Cham, pp. 268–293.
Empirical evidence suggests considerable productivity gains during project initiation and planning, including faster setup of new projects and improved alignment between technical teams and management (Aramali et al., 2025; Brynjolfsson et al., 2023; Hughes et al., 2025).
Aramali et al. (2025): V. Aramali, N. Cho, F. Pande, M. K. S. Al-Mhdawi, U. Ojiako, and A. Qazi
Generative AI in project management: Impacts on corporate values, employee perceptions, and organizational practices.
Project Leadership and Society 6, pp. 100191.
GenAI is typically deployed via structured prompts and increasingly integrated into project management tools such as Jira, Confluence, or Microsoft Project (Barcaui and Monat, 2023; Ng et al., 2024). These capabilities contribute to early identification of risks and structured project preparation.
Barcaui and Monat (2023): A. Barcaui and A. Monat
Who is better in project planning?Generative artificial intelligence or project managers?., Project Leadership and Society 4, pp. 100101.
Ng et al. (2024): K. K. Ng, L. Fauzi, L. Leow, and J. Ng
Harnessing the Potential of Gen-AI Coding Assistants in Public Sector Software Development.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2409.17434 [cs]
Requirements Analysis.
During requirements analysis, Generative Artificial Intelligence assists in drafting, refining, and validating functional and technical requirements.
LLMs are used to generate and elaborate user stories and use cases based on high-level project documentation (Cico et al., 2023; Pinto et al., 2023; Wei et al., 2025) and to create preliminary architectural drafts and structured feature specifications (Glever et al., 2024; Gong et al., 2025; Nitin, 2024).
Glever et al. (2024): P. Glever, A. Balssa, S. Girard, T. Hermann, S. Baccou, and L. Neville
Redefining software engineering: The impact of generative AI.
Technical report Capgemini.
Gong et al. (2025): J. Gong, V. Voskanyan, P. Brookes, F. Wu, W. Jie, J. Xu, R. Giavrimis, M. Basios, L. Kanthan, and Z. Wang
Language Models for Code Optimization: Survey, Challenges and Future Directions.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2501.01277 [cs]
Nitin (2024): V. Nitin
Using AI to Automate the Modernization of Legacy Software Applications.
In Proceedings of the 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering,
ASE ’24, New York, NY, USA, pp. 2514–2517.
AI-assisted approaches reduce conceptualization time and accelerate the creation of prototypes, including visually oriented UI/UX artifacts (Wei, 2024; Wei et al., 2025; Gnanasambandam et al., 2025).
Gnanasambandam et al. (2025)
C. Gnanasambandam, M. Harrysson, and R. Singh
How an AI-enabled software product development life cycle will fuel innovation., Technical report McKinsey.
Tools such as Figma AI and related plugins seem promising implementations for rapid prototyping (Petridis et al., 2024).
Petridis et al. (2024): S. Petridis, M. Terry, and C. J. Cai
PromptInfuser: How Tightly Coupling AI and UI Design Impacts Designers’ Workflows.
In Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference,
DIS ’24, New York, NY, USA, pp. 743–756.
Furthermore, AI systems can analyze requirement documents to identify inconsistencies, ambiguities, and missing elements, enabling earlier error detection and reducing downstream rework (Gong et al., 2025; Porter et al., 2025).
Gong et al. (2025): J. Gong, V. Voskanyan, P. Brookes, F. Wu, W. Jie, J. Xu, R. Giavrimis, M. Basios, L. Kanthan, and Z. Wang
Language Models for Code Optimization: Survey, Challenges and Future Directions.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2501.01277 [cs]
Porter et al. (2025)
D. Porter, J. F. DeFranco, and P. Laplante
Requirements Specification Automated Quality Analysis: Past, Present, and Future.
Computer 58 (1), pp. 101–104 (en).
Improved consistency between business and IT stakeholders has also been reported (Pinto et al., 2023; Brynjolfsson et al., 2023).
Pinto et al. (2023): G. Pinto, C. d. Souza, T. Rocha, I. Steinmacher, A. d. Souza, and E. Monteiro
Developer Experiences with a Contextualized AI Coding Assistant: Usability, Expectations, and Outcomes.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2311.18452 [cs]
Brynjolfsson et al. (2023): E. Brynjolfsson, D. Li, and L. R. Raymond
Generative AI at work.
Design and Implementation.
The design and implementation phase represents the most extensively studied application domain for GenAI. AI-assisted coding tools such as GitHub Copilot provide real-time code completion, refactoring suggestions, boilerplate generation, and context-aware optimization (Peng et al., 2023; Yetiştiren et al., 2023; Solohubov et al., 2023; Glever et al., 2024; Gerdemann et al., 2024).
Peng et al. (2023): S. Peng, E. Kalliamvakou, P. Cihon, and M. Demirer
The Impact of AI on Developer Productivity: Evidence from GitHub Copilot.
arXiv., Note: arXiv:2302.06590 [cs]
Yetiştiren et al. (2023): B. Yetiştiren, I. Özsoy, M. Ayerdem, and E. Tüzün
Evaluating the Code Quality of AI-Assisted Code Generation Tools: An Empirical Study on GitHub Copilot, Amazon CodeWhisperer, and ChatGPT.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2304.10778 [cs]
Solohubov et al. (2023): I. Solohubov, A. Moroz, M. Y. Tiahunova, H. H. Kyrychek, and S. Skrupsky
Accelerating software development with AI: exploring the impact of ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot.
They also support automatic documentation generation, including code comments and API documentation (Atif et al., 2025; Pinto et al., 2023; Ndiaye et al., 2025), as well as recommendations to improve code structure and maintainability (Gong et al., 2025; Zhong et al., 2025).
Atif et al. (2025): M. Atif, K. Chopra, O. Kilic, T. Wang, Z. Dong, C. Leggett, M. Lin, P. Calafiura, and S. Habib
CelloAI: Leveraging Large Language Models for HPC Software Development in High Energy Physics.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2508.16713 [cs]
Pinto et al. (2023): G. Pinto, C. d. Souza, T. Rocha, I. Steinmacher, A. d. Souza, and E. Monteiro
Developer Experiences with a Contextualized AI Coding Assistant: Usability, Expectations, and Outcomes.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2311.18452 [cs]
Ndiaye et al. (2025): A. Ndiaye, X. Taraj, B. Robeznik, G. Herzog, C. Gerber, and H. Purwins
Generative AI in Software Engineering: Transforming the Software Development Process.
Technical report, Accenture & German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence.
Experimental and field studies consistently report increased development speed (Peng et al., 2023; Cui et al., 2024; Shihab et al., 2025; Struever et al., 2025; Deniz et al., 2023).
Peng et al. (2023): S. Peng, E. Kalliamvakou, P. Cihon, and M. Demirer
The Impact of AI on Developer Productivity: Evidence from GitHub Copilot.
arXiv., Note: arXiv:2302.06590 [cs]
Cui et al. (2024): K. Z. Cui, M. Demirer, S. Jaffe, L. Musolff, S. Peng, and T. Salz
The Productivity Effects of Generative AI: Evidence from a Field Experiment with GitHub Copilot.
An MIT Exploration of Generative AI (en).
Shihab et al. (2025): M. I. H. Shihab, C. Hundhausen, A. Tariq, S. Haque, Y. Qiao, and B. W. Mulanda
The Effects of GitHub Copilot on Computing Students’ Programming Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Processes in Brownfield Coding Tasks.
In Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research V.1,
Charlottesville USA, pp. 407–420 (en).
Struever et al. (2025): M. Struever, M. Kropp, and J. Bedard
From Dev Speed to Business Impact: The Case for AI-Assisted Coding and Generative Engineering.
Deniz et al. (2023): B. K. Deniz, C. Gnanasambandam, M. Harrysson, A. Hussin, and S. Srivastava
Unleash developer productivity with generative AI., Technical report, McKinsey.
Routine tasks are particularly affected, with automation reducing manual effort for standardized coding activities (Solohubov et al., 2023).
Several analyses also indicate improvements in review efficiency and defect reduction, although human oversight remains essential (Collante et al., 2025; Yetiştiren et al., 2023; Ndiaye et al., 2025).
Implementation typically occurs via integration into Integrated Development Environments such as Visual Studio Code or IntelliJ, often combined with secure APIs or isolated models to address data protection and compliance requirements (Ng et al., 2024; Ebert and Louridas, 2023).
Testing and Integration.
In the testing and integration phase, Generative Artificial Intelligence is used to automatically generate unit, integration, and end-to-end test cases (Atif et al., 2025; Glever et al., 2024; Maggoo et al., 2025; Zhong et al., 2025).
Atif et al. (2025): M. Atif, K. Chopra, O. Kilic, T. Wang, Z. Dong, C. Leggett, M. Lin, P. Calafiura, and S. Habib
CelloAI: Leveraging Large Language Models for HPC Software Development in High Energy Physics.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2508.16713 [cs]
Glever et al. (2024): P. Glever, A. Balssa, S. Girard, T. Hermann, S. Baccou, and L. Neville
Redefining software engineering: The impact of generative AI.
Technical report Capgemini.
Maggoo et al. (2025): L. Maggoo, C. De Pommerol, A. Ardeshna, E. Amiot, L. Bensoussan, J. Haddad, L. Kouyoumji, I. Palencia, and B. Tubiana
Next Frontier in Transforming Telecom: Practical Benefits of Agentic AI and Digital Agents., Technical report, Oliver Wyman.
Additional applications include the creation of mock objects and synthetic test data (Yetiştiren et al., 2023; Gong et al., 2025), suggestions for missing test paths and coverage gaps (Cico et al., 2023; Nitin, 2024), and AI-assisted security analysis (Ding et al., 2024; Pearce et al., 2025; Ndiaye et al., 2025).
Cico et al. (2023): O. Cico, B. Cico, and A. Cico
AI-assisted Software Engineering: a tertiary study.
In 2023 12th Mediterranean Conference on Embedded Computing (MECO), pp. 1–6.
Note: ISSN: 2637-9511
Nitin (2024): V. Nitin
Using AI to Automate the Modernization of Legacy Software Applications.
In Proceedings of the 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering,
ASE ’24, New York, NY, USA, pp. 2514–2517.
-------------------
Ding et al. (2024)
A. Ding, G. Li, X. Yi, X. Lin, J. Li, and C. Zhang
Generative AI for Software Security Analysis: Fundamentals, Applications, and Challenges.
IEEE Software 41 (6), pp. 46–54.
Pearce et al. (2025): H. Pearce, B. Ahmad, B. Tan, B. Dolan-Gavitt, and R. Karri
Asleep at the Keyboard? Assessing the Security of GitHub Copilot’s Code Contributions.
Commun. ACM 68 (2), pp. 96–105.
Ndiaye et al. (2025): A. Ndiaye, X. Taraj, B. Robeznik, G. Herzog, C. Gerber, and H. Purwins
Generative AI in Software Engineering: Transforming the Software Development Process.
Technical report, Accenture & German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence.
The literature documents reductions in manual testing effort for routine scenarios and broader, faster test coverage (Kathiresan, 2024; Solohubov et al., 2023; Zhong et al., 2025) as well as earlier detection of edge cases and integration issues (Yetiştiren et al., 2023; Kathiresan, 2024).
Kathiresan (2024): G. Kathiresan
Automated Test Case Generation with AI: A Novel Framework for Improving Software Quality and Coverage.
World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews 23 (2), pp. 2880–2889 (en).
Note: Last Modified: 2025-03-24T17:45+05:30
Solohubov et al. (2023): I. Solohubov, A. Moroz, M. Y. Tiahunova, H. H. Kyrychek, and S. Skrupsky
Accelerating software development with AI: exploring the impact of ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot.
Zhong et al. (2025)
M. Zhong, X. Sun, F. Lv, L. Wang, H. Geng, L. Qiu, H. Cui, and X. Feng
BePilot: An AI Programming Assistant for Compiler Backend Development.
ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol.. Note: Just Accepted
--------------------
Yetiştiren et al. (2023): B. Yetiştiren, I. Özsoy, M. Ayerdem, and E. Tüzün
Evaluating the Code Quality of AI-Assisted Code Generation Tools: An Empirical Study on GitHub Copilot, Amazon CodeWhisperer, and ChatGPT.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2304.10778 [cs]
Kathiresan (2024): G. Kathiresan
Automated Test Case Generation with AI: A Novel Framework for Improving Software Quality and Coverage.
World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews 23 (2), pp. 2880–2889 (en).
Note: Last Modified: 2025-03-24T17:45+05:30
In practice, Generative Artificial Intelligence is often integrated into CI/CD pipelines and connected to test frameworks or embedded directly into development environments for automated code analysis and test case generation (Ng et al., 2024; Pinto et al., 2023).
Ng et al. (2024): K. K. Ng, L. Fauzi, L. Leow, and J. Ng
Harnessing the Potential of Gen-AI Coding Assistants in Public Sector Software Development.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2409.17434 [cs]
Pinto et al. (2023): G. Pinto, C. d. Souza, T. Rocha, I. Steinmacher, A. d. Souza, and E. Monteiro
Developer Experiences with a Contextualized AI Coding Assistant: Usability, Expectations, and Outcomes.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2311.18452 [cs]
Operation and Maintenance.
In the operation and maintenance phase, Generative Artificial Intelligence supports the analysis of logs, error messages, and stack traces, providing diagnostic insights and suggesting potential remediation steps based on learned patterns (Ng et al., 2024; Gong et al., 2025; Zhong et al., 2025).
Ng et al. (2024): K. K. Ng, L. Fauzi, L. Leow, and J. Ng
Harnessing the Potential of Gen-AI Coding Assistants in Public Sector Software Development.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2409.17434 [cs]
Gong et al. (2025): J. Gong, V. Voskanyan, P. Brookes, F. Wu, W. Jie, J. Xu, R. Giavrimis, M. Basios, L. Kanthan, and Z. Wang
Language Models for Code Optimization: Survey, Challenges and Future Directions.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2501.01277 [cs]
Zhong et al. (2025)
M. Zhong, X. Sun, F. Lv, L. Wang, H. Geng, L. Qiu, H. Cui, and X. Feng
BePilot: An AI Programming Assistant for Compiler Backend Development.
ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol.. Note: Just Accepted
It is also used to explain, summarize, and restructure poorly documented or complex legacy code, improving maintainability and knowledge transfer (Nitin, 2024; Atif et al., 2025; Maggoo et al., 2025).
Nitin (2024): V. Nitin
Using AI to Automate the Modernization of Legacy Software Applications.
In Proceedings of the 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering,
ASE ’24, New York, NY, USA, pp. 2514–2517.
Atif et al. (2025): M. Atif, K. Chopra, O. Kilic, T. Wang, Z. Dong, C. Leggett, M. Lin, P. Calafiura, and S. Habib
CelloAI: Leveraging Large Language Models for HPC Software Development in High Energy Physics.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2508.16713 [cs]
Maggoo et al. (2025): L. Maggoo, C. De Pommerol, A. Ardeshna, E. Amiot, L. Bensoussan, J. Haddad, L. Kouyoumji, I. Palencia, and B. Tubiana
Next Frontier in Transforming Telecom: Practical Benefits of Agentic AI and Digital Agents., Technical report, Oliver Wyman.
Reported effects include faster issue detection and resolution, improved traceability, and enhanced resilience to staff turnover due to automated documentation and knowledge preservation (Ng et al., 2024; Pinto et al., 2023; Nitin, 2024).
Ng et al. (2024): K. K. Ng, L. Fauzi, L. Leow, and J. Ng
Harnessing the Potential of Gen-AI Coding Assistants in Public Sector Software Development.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2409.17434 [cs]
Pinto et al. (2023): G. Pinto, C. d. Souza, T. Rocha, I. Steinmacher, A. d. Souza, and E. Monteiro
Developer Experiences with a Contextualized AI Coding Assistant: Usability, Expectations, and Outcomes.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2311.18452 [cs]
Nitin (2024): V. Nitin
Using AI to Automate the Modernization of Legacy Software Applications.
In Proceedings of the 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering,
ASE ’24, New York, NY, USA, pp. 2514–2517.
Integration commonly occurs within incident and log management platforms such as Jira, ServiceNow, or Grafana, and in sensitive environments through locally deployed or access-controlled AI systems to mitigate compliance risks (Ng et al., 2024; Ebert and Louridas, 2023).
Ng et al. (2024): K. K. Ng, L. Fauzi, L. Leow, and J. Ng
Harnessing the Potential of Gen-AI Coding Assistants in Public Sector Software Development.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2409.17434 [cs]
Ebert and Louridas (2023): C. Ebert and P. Louridas
Generative AI for Software Practitioners.
IEEE Software 40 (4), pp. 30–38 (en).
GenAI in Agile Software Development
Generative Artificial Intelligence influences the dynamics of agile development practices beyond productivity gains.
The literature reports high perceived usefulness and satisfaction in agile teams when using AI-assisted tools (Geyer et al., 2025) and accelerated task completion, leading to shorter iteration cycles and more frequent releases (Zhang et al., 2024; Ulfsnes et al., 2024; Bahi et al., 2024).
Geyer et al. (2025): W. Geyer, J. He, D. Sarkar, M. Brachman, C. Hammond, J. Heins, Z. Ashktorab, C. Rosemberg, and C. Hill
A Case Study Investigating the Role of Generative AI in Quality Evaluations of Epics in Agile Software Development.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2505.07664 [cs]
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Zhang et al. (2024): S. Zhang, Z. Xing, R. Guo, F. Xu, L. Chen, Z. Zhang, X. Zhang, Z. Feng, and Z. Zhuang
Empowering Agile-Based Generative Software Development through Human-AI Teamwork.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2407.15568 [cs]
Ulfsnes et al. (2024): R. Ulfsnes, N. B. Moe, V. Stray, and M. Skarpen
Transforming Software Development with Generative AI: Empirical Insights on Collaboration and Workflow.
arXiv. Note: arXiv:2405.01543 [cs]
Bahi et al. (2024): A. Bahi, J. Gharib, and Y. Gahi
Integrating Generative AI for Advancing Agile Software Development and Mitigating Project Management Challenges.
International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications 15 (3) (en).
By automating routine coding, documentation, and testing tasks, Generative Artificial Intelligence enables teams to focus on value-generating increments, reinforcing core agile principles such as rapid feedback and continuous delivery. At the same time, role expectations shift:
Product owners, developers, and scrum masters increasingly engage in strategic, creative, and evaluative activities, while routine tasks are partially delegated to AI systems (Diebold, 2025; Bahi et al., 2024; Nasir and Hussain, 2024).
Diebold (2025): P. Diebold
From Backlogs to Bots: Generative AI’s Impact on Agile Role Evolution.
J. Softw. Evol. Process 37 (1).
Bahi et al. (2024): A. Bahi, J. Gharib, and Y. Gahi
Integrating Generative AI for Advancing Agile Software Development and Mitigating Project Management Challenges.
International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications 15 (3) (en).
Nasir and Hussain (2024): B. Nasir and I. Hussain
Automating Agile Workflows: The Role of Multi-Agent LLMs in Modern Software Engineering.
Technical report
The literature recommends adapting role profiles and strengthening AI-related competencies, particularly critical evaluation skills in AI-supported environments.
Risks and Roadblocks in the Adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence
Despite substantial productivity gains, the literature identifies a range of short- and long-term risks associated with the integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence into software development. In the short term, concerns relate to reliability, quality control, and security. AI-generated code suggestions are frequently erroneous, with manual correction efforts averaging approximately ten minutes per identified defect (Yetiştiren et al., 2023).
A significant proportion of outputs requires post-editing before productive use (Ziegler et al., 2022). Developers often accept AI-generated snippets with limited scrutiny, suggesting superficial quality control practices (Ziegler et al., 2022; Chen et al., 2021).
Perceived productivity improvements do not always align with objective activity metrics, raising the risk of overestimating efficiency gains (Stray et al., 2025).
Security vulnerabilities represent a further concern: coding assistants can be susceptible to prompt injection attacks, potentially leading to data contamination, unintended code execution, or data leakage (Liu et al., 2025; Cotroneo et al., 2024; Norton et al., 2025).
Long-term risks are more structural. Continuous reliance on AI-generated suggestions may erode deep technical knowledge and increase dependency on AI systems (Ng et al., 2024; Brynjolfsson et al., 2023; Ding et al., 2025).
Automatically generated code can introduce opaque dependencies and architectural inconsistencies, contributing to technical debt (Ebert and Louridas, 2023; Atif et al., 2025; Anderson et al., 2025; Moreschini et al., 2026).
Even syntactically correct code may contain subtle semantic or security-relevant weaknesses (Yetiştiren et al., 2023; Atif et al., 2025).
Organizational dependence on specific vendors poses additional strategic risks, including technology lock-in and compliance exposure (Ng et al., 2024).
At the team level, some studies indicate reduced direct human interaction when AI tools mediate communication, code explanation or problem-solving (Ulfsnes et al., 2024; Cabrero-Daniel et al., 2024), entailing risks of knowledge silos and diminished interpersonal trust.
To mitigate these effects, research recommends maintaining structured exchange formats such as code reviews and sprint retrospectives. More broadly, governance demands increase as Generative Artificial Intelligence becomes embedded in production workflows. Issues of quality assurance, accountability, compliance, and traceability become more salient when AI-generated artifacts are incorporated into production systems (Geyer et al., 2025; Zhang et al., 2024; Ulfsnes et al., 2024; Diebold, 2025; Bahi et al., 2024).
The literature emphasizes the need to formalize review obligations, clarify responsibility for AI-assisted outputs, and establish dedicated governance frameworks to prevent quality degradation and unmanaged risk exposure.
Several roadblocks constrain the realization of Generative Artificial Intelligence’s full potential. A large-scale industry survey (Ahlawat et al., 2024) shows that coding accounts for only 10–15 % of total development time and less than 50 % of developers use Generative Artificial Intelligence. They conclude, that improvements in code generation alone have limited overall impact.
To prevent automation risks from offsetting productivity gains, a human-in-the-loop approach (including quality review, domain judgment, and requirements oversight) is emphasized by industry reports (Deniz et al., 2023; Ahlawat et al., 2024; Struever et al., 2025).
Overall, the literature indicates that Generative Artificial Intelligence exerts measurable influence across all phases of the SDLC, with the strongest effects observed in design, implementation, and testing. However, these gains are neither uniform nor automatically realized—short-term limitations in reliability and security, long-term risks such as skill erosion and technical debt as well as organizational roadblocks may constrain or offset productivity improvements. Effective governance frameworks, structured human-in-the-loop validation, and deliberate organizational adaptation remain critical to translating GenAI’s technical capabilities into lasting benefits.
