Redefining the future of software engineering

A new industry report sponsored by SoftServe, based on a survey of 300 engineering and technology executives, positions agentic AI as the third major seismic shift in software engineering, following open source and DevOps. The findings show adoption momentum is building rapidly: while 51% of software teams are using agentic AI in limited capacities today, 45% plan to adopt it within the next 12 months. Investment is soaring, with over 80% of organizations expecting it to be a top priority in two years. The chief anticipated benefit is speed, with 98% of respondents expecting faster project delivery, projecting an average 37% acceleration in time-to-market.

Teams have ambitious scaling goals, aiming to move beyond using AI for discrete coding tasks to full project autonomy. The report indicates 41% of organizations aim to have AI agents managing most or all product and software development lifecycles (PDLC/SDLC) end-to-end within 18 months, a figure expected to rise to 72% in two years. However, the path isn't without hurdles. Early challenges include the high cost of computing resources and the technical complexity of integrating agents with existing applications. Experts interviewed for the report emphasize that the larger barrier will be organizational change management, requiring significant shifts in workflows and processes to fully realize the efficiency and quality gains promised by agentic automation.