Developer Survey 2024: Developers love AI, but doubt its accuracy

AI is entering the market with great promises, the average annual income is falling and technical debt remains the biggest frustration factor – Stack Overflow’s new Developer Survey 2024 shows how this affects the overall developer experience. The famous online platform for programming and software development surveyed almost 65,000 software developers about technologies, AI and the working environment.

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JavaScript remains the most popular programming language and Rust is experiencing a renaissance

Technological presents the report A list of the most used programming languages, databases, cloud platforms, and web frameworks. As in previous years, JavaScript remains in first place with 62.3 percent of the votes, followed by HTML/CSS (52.9 percent) and Python (51 percent). Zephyr is the least used, but with its initial release in 2016 it still offers a fairly young environment for a real-time operating system.

The report pays special attention to Rust. The programming language is used intensively by only 12.6 percent of those surveyed, but 82.2 percent of users are considering using Rust in the next year. MATLAB is the least influential, at around 21.7 percent.

When it comes to databases, PostgreSQL once again ranks first this year with 48.7 percent of the votes, ahead of MySQL (40.3 percent) and SQLite (33.1 percent). This makes PostgreSQL the most used database among software developers for the second year in a row.

When it comes to cloud platforms, Stack Overflow sees no change at the top. Amazon Web Services remains the leader with 48 percent penetration, followed by Microsoft Azure (27.8 percent) and Google Cloud (25.1 percent). What’s worth noting here is the picture for young professionals, for whom Azure plays a minor role at only 12.5 percent – for them, Google Cloud dominates with 24.5 percent and Amazon Web Services with 21.1 percent usage.

Disillusionment in dealing with AI, awareness of ethical issues is growing

Questions about artificial intelligence are also among the main focuses of the Developer Survey 2024 and the answers give a mixed picture. Possibly as a result of unfulfilled expectations, enthusiasm for AI solutions fell from 77 to 72 percent. At the same time, the use of AI tools in projects has increased from 70 to 76 percent, according to Stack Overflow.

According to their own statements, developers benefit the most from increased productivity through the use of AI tools. About 43 percent of users trust AI’s answers, but about 31 percent are skeptical about its results. At this point, career starters use technology with significantly more confidence.

In the coming year, it is becoming clear that AI will find its way into the areas of documentation (81 percent), testing (80 percent) and writing code (76 percent).

Decline in revenue and developer experience

In addition to technical development, developers faced various challenges last year. The average annual income has dropped by about ten thousand US dollars. Site reliability engineers and cloud infrastructure engineers, who are critical to the operation of digital services, receive the highest compensation. There are also areas of focus across countries: in the United States, mobile developers are in the top group, in Germany and Ukraine it is data engineers and in India and the United Kingdom backend developers earn above average. According to the survey, the top salary for developers in Germany (average, converted to US dollars) reaches 82,000 US dollars, in the United States up to 225,000 US dollars.

However, salary is not the most important factor for software developer satisfaction. Technical debt is a major frustration factor for 62.4 percent of those surveyed – regardless of whether they joined as developers or managers. Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed are overall satisfied or happy with their current job.

According to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2024, what unites developers at this point is their passion for improving software quality and their development environments. According to the survey, this is what excites them the most.

Stack Overflow’s developer survey is relevant in that it provides comprehensive insights into the trends, technologies, and working conditions of the global developer community. It helps companies better understand the needs and preferences of developers; looking at the current mood and challenges can provide valuable information for recruitment and development.

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