Evolving with AI: A Longitudinal Analysis of Developer Logs
Agnia Sergeyuk, Eric Huang, Dariia Karaeva, Anastasiia Serova, Yaroslav Golubev, Iftekhar Ahmed
TL;DR
This paper investigates the long-term impact of AI-powered coding assistants on professional software development by combining two years of fine-grained IDE telemetry from 800 developers with a survey of 62 practitioners. The mixed-methods design reveals that AI adoption is associated with increased code authoring and editing activity, more external code reuse, and greater context switching, while self-reported productivity grows and perceptions of changes in other dimensions are mixed. Telemetry and survey narratives diverge, highlighting how perceived productivity gains can mask underlying shifts in workflow structure and cognitive load. Overall, AI tools appear to modify the rhythm and distribution of developer effort rather than simply boosting output, with important design implications for continuity, visibility, and cognitive support in future AI-augmented IDEs.
Abstract
AI-powered coding assistants are rapidly becoming fixtures in professional IDEs, yet their sustained influence on everyday development remains poorly understood. Prior research has focused on short-term use or self-reported perceptions, leaving open questions about how sustained AI use reshapes actual daily coding practices in the long term. We address this gap with a mixed-method study of AI adoption in IDEs, combining longitudinal two-year fine-grained telemetry from 800 developers with a survey of 62 professionals. We analyze five dimensions of workflow change: productivity, code quality, code editing, code reuse, and context switching. Telemetry reveals that AI users produce substantially more code but also delete significantly more. Meanwhile, survey respondents report productivity gains and perceive minimal changes in other dimensions. Our results offer empirical insights into the silent restructuring of software workflows and provide implications for designing future AI-augmented tooling.