What We Researched

Our study aimed to answer three main questions about GenAI for coding: 

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Does Copilot access help developers ship faster code?

What was the impact on delivery metrics like cycle time and PR throughput?

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Does it help developers ship higher quality code?

Is there a higher or lower incidence of PRs with bugs? Of retained issues?

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Does it mitigate the risk of developer burnout?

Are we seeing a change in the amount of time developers are working over hours?

bug-rate-increase

Key Insight:

Developers with Copilot access saw a significantly higher bug rate while their issue throughput remained consistent. 

This suggests that Copilot may negatively impact code quality. Engineering leaders may wish to dig deeper to find the PRs with bugs and put guardrails in place for the responsible use of generative AI.