The great toil shift: How AI is redefining technical debt

The report explores the impact of AI coding assistants on software development, revealing that while AI accelerates code generation and boosts personal productivity by 35%, it does not eliminate repetitive tasks, merely reshaping them. Developers still spend about a quarter of their time on tedious tasks, regardless of AI usage frequency. AI shifts the burden from traditional tasks like debugging to managing technical debt and correcting AI-generated code, creating a "great toil shift." Although 88% of developers note negative impacts of AI on technical debt, like unreliable code and increased duplications, 93% report positive effects, such as improved documentation. The report emphasizes that faster code generation alone does not enhance codebase health, advocating for a "vibe, then verify" approach where code creation is accompanied by rigorous verification processes. This strategy, supported by static code analysis tools and automated verification, aims to transform AI's speed advantages into genuine improvements in code quality and reduction of technical debt.