\n The survey\u2019s results, like Housh\u2019s experience, provide a glimpse at what that transition has been like for some developers, painting a mixed picture of both rising adoption and uncertainty about how the technology is reshaping their professions.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Stack Overflow survey showed that 65% of responders use coding assistants or agents. Last year, Google\u2019s research division published a survey of 5,000 tech professionals from around the world and found that 90% said they use AI in their job \u2014 a 14% increase from 2024.\n <\/p>\n
\n But job unhappiness among respondents in Stack Overflow\u2019s survey has also grown compared to last year. Nearly one in three said they are not happy in their current roles, compared to 28.4% last year. About 45% described themselves as \u201ccomplacent\u201d with their jobs and only 22.3% are \u201chappy.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The biggest factors among those who are complacent or unhappy are burnout, tech fatigue, economic uncertainty and a lack of clarity about upward mobility in their role.\n <\/p>\n
\n Many of those anxieties would exist regardless of AI. But the fast pace of AI advancement has \u201caugmented\u201d some of those concerns, according to Stack Overflow CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cPeople have to completely retool their jobs, and so it is quite unnerving for folks to know exactly how much of what they\u2019re doing will be automated,\u201d Chandrasekar told CNN.\n <\/p>\n
\n Software developers are grappling with concerns that are more nuanced than whether their jobs will be replaced, according to Chandrasekar. Senior programmers may feel the skills they\u2019ve honed are no longer as relevant, he said. Entry-level workers are expected to operate as if they have three years of experience since \u201cthe bar has been raised\u201d because of AI. Tech workers often use their spare time to learn the latest coding tools, he said.\n <\/p>\n
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\n Housh says she\u2019s familiar with the pressures of learning and keeping up with AI. She said she watches AI-focused videos and reads platform documentation in her personal time \u2014 and she still struggles to keep up.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s taxing because you have a lot of noise saying, \u2018Do this, do this, do this, or you\u2019ll get left behind,\u2019\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n
\n For programmers like Housh and Audrey Eschright, a software engineer with 20 years of experience, it\u2019s not about a lack of desire to embrace the new technology. Rather, the problem is that AI agents have neither the broad general knowledge of an experienced developer nor the job-specific context of a longtime employee.\n <\/p>\n
\n That can cause friction and more fatigue for developers, said Housh. What\u2019s more, using AI instead of writing code manually can leave developers out of the loop of the solution, Eschright said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWriting code is how you solve problems,\u201d said Eschright. \u201cAs a software engineer, the process of figuring out what a system does is to change it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n This sentiment is also captured in Stack Overflow\u2019s survey results. A little more than 74% of respondents said AI is useful for implementing code, and about 72% said it\u2019s helpful for debugging \u2014 but only 34.4% say AI is useful for other job functions like communication and design.\n <\/p>\n
\n The survey showed that just 6.6% trust AI with important decisions.\n <\/p>\n
\n And about 78% said that source attribution is important when checking AI-generated code.\n <\/p>\n