Developer trends and trust in artificial intelligence tools recorded radical shifts over the past year, according to the latest data revealed by JetBrains Research based on developer ecosystem surveys and AI pulse data.
The results showed a massive leap in engineers' readiness to delegate programming tasks to intelligent agents; the percentage of developers willing to delegate writing application logic to AI rose from just 18% between April and June 2025 to reach 50% just one year later. Writing tests experienced similar growth, with the percentage rising from 50% to 75%, while the delegation of code refactoring tasks climbed from 38% to 60%.
Tasks Developers Are Reluctant to Delegate
Despite the significant acceleration in AI adoption, there remain core activities where the majority prefers to retain human control:
- Code Review: The percentage of those willing to fully delegate this task to AI is only 43%, up from 33% in the previous year.
- Debugging: A majority of 54% still refuses to fully delegate debugging, despite this percentage declining compared to last year when it stood at 76%.
Shifts in Developer Sentiment and Job Concerns
Alongside development tasks, the general perception of AI's role in the job market has changed; 79% of developers believe employers will demand high proficiency in using AI-powered development tools, compared to 59% in mid-2024.
In contrast, concerns related to the future of programming jobs are increasing, with 37% viewing that the use of AI will reduce the demand for professional developers (compared to 28% in 2024). Additionally, about a quarter of participants expressed their belief that AI will completely dominate programming to entirely replace human developers—a percentage that marks a notable increase compared to just 8% in the previous year, and this view is particularly prominent among heavy users of AI agents.