Austin, Texas, USA, February 3, 2026
2025 decision-maker data validates the developer’s transition from code authorship to engineering-driven, agent-based software development.
AI’s usage in the software development lifecycle has moved from experimentation to operational reality across software development organizations, according to a new Futurum Research report.
The 2026 Software Lifecycle Engineering Decision Maker Survey shows that 76.6% of organizations are actively using AI in development workflows, with another 20.4% evaluating its implementation. Only 3.1% remain disengaged.
This 97% adoption trajectory validates that 2026 marks the inflection point where developers become engineers of agent-driven development, shifting from direct code authorship to orchestrating how AI agents execute across the software lifecycle.
Figure 1: Organizational AI Usage in Software Development
Mitch Ashley, VP Practice Lead for Software Lifecycle Engineering at Futurum Research, said, “2026 marks the point where developers become engineers of agent-driven development. As AI agents take on execution across planning, coding, testing, deployment, and operations, the developer role shifts toward intent definition, system design, constraint enforcement, and accountability.”
The Software Lifecycle Engineering program tracks how AI, platforms, observability, and software security are evolving to support that transition as agent-driven development moves from experimentation into an everyday reality.
The 2026 research reveals several key developments shaping AI’s use in IT organizations:
- 76.6% of organizations actively using AI in development workflows: 38.7% in some projects, 21.1% extensively across most projects, and 16.8% piloting in limited use.
- 20.4% evaluating AI-driven development for future implementation, indicating near-term expansion of the adoption trajectory.
- Only 3.1% not currently using or considering AI in software development, representing statistical noise rather than a meaningful holdout cohort.
- Developer work is shifting from direct code authorship to orchestrating agent execution, defining system intent, establishing quality frameworks, and enforcing constraints across automated workflows.
- Organizations require evolved platform capabilities for agent control planes, workflow orchestration, observability into agent behavior, and governance frameworks that enable developers to maintain accountability across automated development systems.
The survey reveals organizations are investing in AI for use across planning, development, testing, deployment, software security, and operations. The platforms, workflows, observability systems, and governance infrastructure required to support this transformation are becoming the critical capabilities organizations require in 2026.
“This 97% adoption trajectory represents more than technology implementation,” notes Ashley. “It signals fundamental software engineering and workforce transformations already underway. We are seeing rapid advancement in the development of the AI stack, operational control planes, guardrails, and orchestration capabilities throughout 2026.”
Vendors are rapidly responding to these needs by making AI-driven development accessible through integration points across the entire software lifecycle. IDE plugins embed AI agents directly into developer workflows. LLM models provide the intelligence layer for code generation, testing, and deployment. Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers enable agents to access external data sources, APIs, and services with standardized interfaces. DevOps agents automate workflow pipelines, infrastructure provisioning, SRE, and operational tasks, while security agents perform vulnerability scanning, policy enforcement, and compliance checks at runtime.
The consequence: barriers to the agent-driven software development lifecycle are lowering rapidly.
Read more in the reports “1H 2026 Software Lifecycle Engineering Decision Maker Survey Report” and “State of the Market Report: Software Lifecycle Engineering, Q4 2025” on the Futurum Intelligence Platform.
About Futurum Intelligence for Market Leaders
Futurum Intelligence’s Software Lifecycle Engineering IQ service provides actionable insight from analysts, reports, and interactive visualization datasets, helping leaders drive their organizations through transformation and business growth. Subscribers can log into the platform at https://app.futurumgroup.com/, and non-subscribers can find additional information at Futurum Intelligence.
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Can Red Hat and NVIDIA Remove the Friction Slowing AI Deployments?
Author Information
Mitch Ashley is VP and Practice Lead of Software Lifecycle Engineering for The Futurum Group. Mitch has over 30+ years of experience as an entrepreneur, industry analyst, product development, and IT leader, with expertise in software engineering, cybersecurity, DevOps, DevSecOps, cloud, and AI. As an entrepreneur, CTO, CIO, and head of engineering, Mitch led the creation of award-winning cybersecurity products utilized in the private and public sectors, including the U.S. Department of Defense and all military branches. Mitch also led managed PKI services for broadband, Wi-Fi, IoT, energy management and 5G industries, product certification test labs, an online SaaS (93m transactions annually), and the development of video-on-demand and Internet cable services, and a national broadband network.
Mitch shares his experiences as an analyst, keynote and conference speaker, panelist, host, moderator, and expert interviewer discussing CIO/CTO leadership, product and software development, DevOps, DevSecOps, containerization, container orchestration, AI/ML/GenAI, platform engineering, SRE, and cybersecurity. He publishes his research on futurumgroup.com and TechstrongResearch.com/resources. He hosts multiple award-winning video and podcast series, including DevOps Unbound, CISO Talk, and Techstrong Gang.
