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Forecasting Developer Environments with GenAI: A Research Perspective

Raula Gaikovina Kula, Christoph Treude, Xing Hu, Sebastian Baltes, Earl T. Barr, Kelly Blincoe, Fabio Calefato, Junjie Chen, Marc Cheong, Youmei Fan, Daniel M. German, Marco Gerosa, Jin L. C. Guo, Shinpei Hayashi, Robert Hirschfeld, Reid Holmes, Yintong Huo, Takashi Kobayashi, Michele Lanza, Zhongxin Liu, Olivier Nourry, Nicole Novielli, Denys Poshyvanyk, Shinobu Saito, Kazumasa Shimari, Igor Steinmacher, Mairieli Wessel, Markus Wagner, Annie Vella, Laurie Williams, Xin Xia

TL;DR

The paper examines how GenAI and foundation models reshape IDEs and software development practices. Through a four-day Shonan Meeting with 33 experts from SE, AI, and HCI, it distills four themes: evolution of the IDE with automation, a paradigm beginning from the IDE, redefined human roles, and 2050 IDE futures including immersive, agent-driven ecosystems. It discusses design principles, potential toolchains, and ethical/legal considerations, such as transparency, bias, and LLM debt. The findings highlight that while tasks shift toward higher abstraction and autonomy, human creativity, supervision, and collaboration remain central, guiding practical directions for research and industry adoption.

Abstract

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) models are achieving remarkable performance in various tasks, including code generation, testing, code review, and program repair. The ability to increase the level of abstraction away from writing code has the potential to change the Human-AI interaction within the integrated development environment (IDE). To explore the impact of GenAI on IDEs, 33 experts from the Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, and Human-Computer Interaction domains gathered to discuss challenges and opportunities at Shonan Meeting 222, a four-day intensive research meeting. Four themes emerged as areas of interest for researchers and practitioners.

Forecasting Developer Environments with GenAI: A Research Perspective

TL;DR

The paper examines how GenAI and foundation models reshape IDEs and software development practices. Through a four-day Shonan Meeting with 33 experts from SE, AI, and HCI, it distills four themes: evolution of the IDE with automation, a paradigm beginning from the IDE, redefined human roles, and 2050 IDE futures including immersive, agent-driven ecosystems. It discusses design principles, potential toolchains, and ethical/legal considerations, such as transparency, bias, and LLM debt. The findings highlight that while tasks shift toward higher abstraction and autonomy, human creativity, supervision, and collaboration remain central, guiding practical directions for research and industry adoption.

Abstract

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) models are achieving remarkable performance in various tasks, including code generation, testing, code review, and program repair. The ability to increase the level of abstraction away from writing code has the potential to change the Human-AI interaction within the integrated development environment (IDE). To explore the impact of GenAI on IDEs, 33 experts from the Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, and Human-Computer Interaction domains gathered to discuss challenges and opportunities at Shonan Meeting 222, a four-day intensive research meeting. Four themes emerged as areas of interest for researchers and practitioners.
Paper Structure (13 sections)

This paper contains 13 sections.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Theme One: A Changing IDE, Solving the Same Problems
  3. Lessons Learnt
  4. Theme Two: A New Paradigm That Begins from the IDE
  5. Lessons Learnt
  6. Theme Three: The Human Role Reimagined
  7. Lessons Learnt
  8. Theme Four: Futurecasting the 2050 IDE
  9. Immersion and User experience
  10. Components of the IDE
  11. Feedback Loops in the IDE
  12. Lessons Learnt
  13. In Closing