Agent autonomy has a pricing problem
34% of professional developers say unpredictable task cost limits how much autonomy they give AI agents. How metered pricing shapes vendor choice.
Research
Independent research on how AI is reshaping software development, built on 20 years of surveying developers. Read our latest findings on AI developer tools and agents, AI ROI, open models and cloud native development.
Latest free reports
The complete analysis behind each survey wave, with the sample stated on every chart.
Faster code, heavier checks
Three-quarters of professional developers (76%) say AI tools are leading managers to expect more output from the same team size.
- Sample
- around 11,000 professional developers
At Least 16 Million People Are Building Software Without Knowing How to Code
There are 16M-22M active builders today: people building software without knowing how to code.
The 2026 State of Developer Adoption
Among practitioners using hands-on labs, 63% report that developers are fully productive within two months or less, compared to 42% among those who do not.
- Sample
- 424 professionals in marketing, sales and developer education roles
Cloud Repatriation: Not the Story We've Been Told
For organisations that made changes to their cloud infrastructure over the last year, 31% of developers moved services from on-premise to public cloud, compared to 28% and 24% who moved from public cloud to private cloud and on-premise infrastructure, respectively.
- Sample
- More than 3,000 cloud developers (from 11,500+ survey respondents)
Progression of how developers engage with AI
88% of professional developers work with AI models, tools, APIs, or services.
- Sample
- Over 47,000 professional developers across six waves
AI in the Developer Workflow
Code generation is the most common task developers report using AI for, with almost half (49%) of those using AI assistants doing so for this purpose.
- Sample
- 11,500+ respondents (task questions n=4,582 and n=4,659)
Sizing programming language communities - Q1 2026
JavaScript continues to hold the top spot with 27.3M developers worldwide.
- Sample
- 11,500+ respondents (n=11,636 for language sizing)
The AI ROI Measurement Gap
88% of technology leaders say they currently measure the impact or ROI of the AI tools, models, or services their teams use, but only 39% are measuring AI impact through formal or automated processes.
- Sample
- 2,341 professional developers in leadership positions
CNCF Technology Radar Q1 2026
The most common approach to internal platforms among respondents was having multiple teams collaboratively handle platform capabilities (41%).
- Sample
- More than 400 professional developers
Where do developers go to learn, connect, and stay informed?
YouTube dominates the learning landscape, with 62% of developers who use social media selecting it as one of their preferred platforms for this purpose.
- Sample
- n=2,959
State of Cloud Native Development Q1 2026
There were 19.9M cloud native developers globally in Q1 2026, roughly 39% of the entire global developer population.
- Sample
- More than 12,500 respondents from 100 countries
Frequently asked questions (F.A.Q.)
Are the same developers surveyed in every wave?
No. We reach out to the global developer population afresh in each wave, so the results represent the many different communities, backgrounds and projects out there.
How do you make sure the answers are genuine?
We check for speeding and straightlining, run advanced bot and VPN detection, and build consistency checks around most questions. For example, a respondent who says they use React but also says they cannot code is caught by these checks.
Do you weight the data?
In some projects, yes. If one group, such as a region, brings a disproportionate share of the sample, we weight the data across several attributes to reduce that bias.
How do I know how many developers a finding is based on?
Each report on this page states its sample, so you can see how many developers the finding rests on before you use it.
Where do I find older reports?
This page lists every free report, newest first, and the latest blog posts. The link at the end of the blog section takes you to every post.
Blog posts
The headline number and what it means, in a few minutes of reading.
AI coding ROI: 62% of senior developers save time, against 42% of juniors
62% of senior developers save time with AI coding tools, against 42% of juniors. This piece examines how ROI is measured and the risk to junior hiring.
Introducing SlashData Intelligence for Software Engineering Leaders: recurring research for engineering decisions
A recurring research programme gives CTOs and VPs of Engineering an independent benchmark on AI ROI, team structure and the decisions reshaping software teams.
