5 key takeaways from the 2026 State of Software Delivery

The 2026 State of Software Delivery report, sponsored by Thoughtworks, reveals that while AI has significantly increased the speed at which code is written, it has not correspondingly improved the speed at which software reaches customers. An analysis of over 28 million CI/CD workflows across various engineering teams shows that AI-powered code generation has led to a 59% increase in daily workflow runs, but this increase is mainly concentrated among the top 5% of teams already strong in delivery practices. Most teams face a bottleneck in moving code from feature branches to production, with AI-generated code leading to higher failure rates and longer recovery times, highlighting deficiencies in validation and integration processes. The report also finds that mid-sized companies struggle the most, showing a need for improved systems to handle the complexities of AI-driven development. The findings suggest that success in the AI era depends on investing in faster feedback loops and adaptive pipeline infrastructure rather than just increasing code generation speed.