Harness Releases its State of Software Delivery Report: Developers Excited by Promise of AI to Combat Burnout, But Security and Governance Gaps Persist

Findings reveal AI may reduce developer toil, but its adoption introduces new complexities in workflows, oversight, and code quality.

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Harness, the AI-Native Software Delivery Platform™ company, today released its State of Software Delivery Report: Beyond CodeGen – The Role of AI in the SDLC. The report highlights AI's potential to significantly reduce developer burnout and improve productivity, while also addressing the challenges organizations face in securely and effectively managing AI-generated code.

The survey of 500 engineering leaders and developers exposes a stark reality: on average, organizations face $8 million in lost productivity per 250 developers annually, with 78% of developers spending at least 30% of their time on manual, repetitive tasks instead of delivering innovation.

Key Findings from the Report:

AI holds promise but introduces new risks.

• 95% of engineering leaders and 98% of developers believe AI tools could greatly reduce burnout.
• However, 92% of developers report that AI increases the "blast radius" from bad code reaching production.
• 67% of developers said they spend more time debugging AI-generated code, and 68% spend more time resolving AI-related security vulnerabilities.
• 59% of developers experience deployment errors at least half of the time when using AI tools.

Shadow AI raises governance and compliance alarms.

• Only 48% of developers use IT-approved AI tools, raising significant compliance and intellectual property concerns.
• 60% of organizations lack formal processes for assessing AI-generated code vulnerabilities or errors.
• 58% of companies do not provide clear guidance on which use cases are low-risk for AI adoption.
• 60% of engineering leaders and developers stated they do not currently evaluate the effectiveness of their AI coding tools, making productivity gains unclear.

The potential of AI extends far beyond code generation.
While AI in code generation dominates current investment priorities, the report reveals an increasing focus on AI applications across the broader software development lifecycle (SDLC):

• 50% of engineering leaders plan to invest in AI for Continuous Integration and Delivery (CI/CD).
• 48% of engineering leaders plan to prioritize AI for performance optimization, and 42% of engineering leaders will focus on using AI to enable security and compliance.

Harness at the Forefront of AI in Software Delivery

In September 2024, Harness introduced its multi-agent AI architecture, designed to elevate the developer experience across the SDLC. This architecture aligns with report findings, addressing both productivity and governance challenges while improving deployment quality.

Harness's comprehensive software delivery platform is one of the only offerings in the market with built-in Open Policy Agent (OPA) support to ensure governance and security compliance. This capability has become increasingly indispensable for organizations leveraging AI for code generation, offering a critical layer of oversight to prevent vulnerabilities and enforce security standards across the SDLC.

"Developers today are under immense pressure to deliver faster, maintain security, ensure performance, and uphold quality—all while balancing an increasing cognitive load," said Jyoti Bansal, co-founder and CEO at Harness. "AI tools have the potential to dramatically reduce this burden by automating repetitive tasks, streamlining workflows, and freeing developers to focus on creative problem-solving and innovation. But let's be clear: AI is not a silver bullet. Without proper governance, security validation, and clear organizational policies, these tools can inadvertently add to developer stress rather than alleviate it. Striking this balance is essential—not only for productivity and quality but also for addressing the burnout crisis that continues to plague our industry."

The Future of AI in Software Delivery

While 88% of engineering leaders and 90% of developers express concerns about AI replacing developers, the report suggests otherwise. AI integration throughout the entire SDLC will create new roles and challenges for developers, whose critical decision-making and contextual understanding are essential for software development and delivery.

Join the Discussion

Harness CEO Jyoti Bansal will be joined by industry leaders from OpenAI, Zscaler, AWS, and others in a virtual event on January 8, 2025, from 10 AM to 12 PM PST to discuss the findings of the State of Software Delivery Report and the future role of AI in the SDLC.

[Register here to attend.]

More insights from the Harness State of Software Delivery report can be found here.

About Harness 
Harness is the leading AI-native platform for complete software delivery. It provides a simple, safe, and secure way for engineering and DevOps teams to release applications into production. Harness uses AI and machine learning to monitor the quality of deployments and automatically roll back failed ones, saving time and reducing the need for custom scripting and manual oversight, giving engineers their nights and weekends back. Harness customers accelerate deployments by up to 75%, reduce infrastructure costs by up to 60%, and decrease lead time for changes by up to 90%. Harness is based in San Francisco.

SOURCE Harness