Developers Now Refuse to Work Without AI Coding Tools, Researchers Find
Researchers have discovered that developers in 2026 can no longer be separated from their AI coding assistants — to the point where they refuse to participate in studies that require working without them. AI safety lab METR had to abandon a follow-up productivity experiment because developers “do not wish to work without AI,” instead publishing a self-reported survey where engineers estimated AI made them twice as valuable.
The dependency comes with mounting concerns: METR’s original 2025 study found AI actually slowed developers down due to time spent fixing errors and steering the tool, while a Singapore Management University report warns that “AI-generated code can introduce long-term maintenance costs into real software projects.” Meanwhile, companies are questioning the ROI — Amazon shut down its internal token-tracking leaderboard after employees gamed it, and Uber exhausted its entire 2026 AI budget within four months without measurable productivity gains.