Fostering Developers’ Trust in AI
Abstract
It’s no secret that generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly changing the landscape of software development, with discussions about best practices for applying this transformative technology dominating the popular press [cite cite cite]. Perhaps nowhere on Earth have these discussions been more frequent and passionate than inside the organizations dedicated to making GenAI accessible and useful to developers, including at Google. During one such discussion between researchers on our DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) and Engineering Productivity Research (EPR) teams, we were struck by a recurring finding common to development professionals both inside and outside of Google:
Using GenAI makes developers feel more productive, and developers who trust GenAI use it more.
On the surface, this finding may seem somewhat… obvious. But, for us, it highlighted the deep need to better understand the factors that impact developers’ trust in GenAI systems and ways to foster that trust, so that developers and development firms can yield the most benefit from their investment in GenAI development tools.
Here, we share findings from seven studies conducted at Google, regarding the productivity gains of GenAI use in development, the impacts of developers’ trust on GenAI use, and the factors we’ve observed which positively impact developers’ trust in GenAI. We conclude with five suggested strategies that organizations engaged in software development might employ to foster their developers’ trust in GenAI, thereby increasing their GenAI use and maximizing GenAI-related productivity gains.
Using GenAI makes developers feel more productive, and developers who trust GenAI use it more.
On the surface, this finding may seem somewhat… obvious. But, for us, it highlighted the deep need to better understand the factors that impact developers’ trust in GenAI systems and ways to foster that trust, so that developers and development firms can yield the most benefit from their investment in GenAI development tools.
Here, we share findings from seven studies conducted at Google, regarding the productivity gains of GenAI use in development, the impacts of developers’ trust on GenAI use, and the factors we’ve observed which positively impact developers’ trust in GenAI. We conclude with five suggested strategies that organizations engaged in software development might employ to foster their developers’ trust in GenAI, thereby increasing their GenAI use and maximizing GenAI-related productivity gains.
