A Fifth of Developers Using ChatGPT at Work Regularly, Study Reveals

With AI being capable of analysing data and writing code, research has shown that ChatGPT can help Developers with better productivity and higher performing softwares development. But how many Devs are actively using AI at work, and which tasks is it most commonly being used for? 

Keen to learn more about the use of AI for Developers, Indusface surveyed 2,000 Developers across the UK, ranging from Game Developers to Data Scientists, to find out more about the use of AI in programming. 

Key Findings:

• Explaining code snippets was found to be the most common use of ChatGPT for Developers in the workplace (12%). 
• Almost one in ten UK Developers also commonly ask for AI’s help in optimising code (9%) and generating documents (9%). 

• Almost a fifth (19%) of Developers are using AI on a regular basis for work. Among all UK Devs, Security Devs had the highest use of AI (31%). 

Top five tasks UK Developers are using ChatGPT for in 2024

According to the survey, one in eight (12%) UK Developers who use ChatGPT at work are using it to explain code snippets - making it the most common reason to use AI. 

By utilising AI for code explanation, Developers are able to better understand the code and its implication at a faster pace which facilitates the development process. 

Coming second is optimizing code, with almost one in ten (9%) of UK Devs using AI at work for this reason. 

Previous studies have shown that AI tools can automate the optimizing process to improve the code’s  readability, maintainability, testability, and efficiency.

The third task that UK developers are most commonly asking for AI’s assistance with, is to help generate documents (9%). 

During a development project, AI can help to save Developers’ time in creating documentation which describes the product/software, making it easier to update the code and to communicate with future users and developers.

The study revealed almost a fifth (19%) of UK Developers admit to using ChatGPT to aid their work on a regular basis. 

Whilst almost a third (30%) say they “sometimes”opt to make use of the AI tool, and almost one in five (19%) haven’t done so yet but are keen to try it out.

Despite the apparent popularity amongst UK Devs when it comes to utilizing ChatGPT in the workplace, less than a quarter of those surveyed who had previously experimented with the tool (24%) said they didn’t like it or get on with it.

The UK Devs who admit to using ChatGPT the most in the workplace

The study from found that Security Developers had the highest use of AI in the workplace, with almost a third (30.8%) of them admitting using ChatGPT regularly for work. 

Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning Developers came second, with over one in five (22%) of them admitting using ChatGPT for work purposes. This was closely followed by DevOps Engineers (21%). 

As AI is seen as a great tool to create more immersive experiences in games, 19% of Game Developers are turning to ChatGPT for assistance in the workplace.

Venky Sundar, Founder and President of Indusface commented on the important of AI for developers and its security risk to be prevented: 

"From finding bugs to generating code tests, it’s no secret that AI can aid developers within the workplace in a variety of different ways. It improves Developers' productivity by carrying out repetitive tasks and saving time in spotting coding errors. It can also be used in predictive analysis which may remind developers of possible overloads in the future, thus optimizing software process and user experience.

While the use of ChatGPT could hugely increase Developers productivity, users also need to be aware of its cyber security concerns. Since Developers need to input software codes or relevant information into ChatGPT before it could optimize or generate documentation, this could be a risk of leaking confidential company data. 

As such, we’d recommend not inputting any confidential information such as client data or internal sensitive data into ChatGPT, as such data can be used in the AI tool's next responses. Instead, you could ask ChatGPT to write content from scratch without risking your company's data security.”