Executives keen to adopt AI coding tools -- developers less so

A new report reveals a disconnect between those in the C-suite and their eagerness to adopt AI coding tools compared to those actually using them who are cautious of AI.

The research from Snyk shows CTOs and CISOs are five times more likely than developers to believe AI coding tools pose no risk and twice as likely than developers to believe they are 'extremely ready' to adopt AI coding tools.

32 percent of C-Suite respondents describe the rapid adoption of AI coding tools as critical -- twice as many as AppSec respondents.

"The GenAI Era has arrived, and there is no 'putting the genie back in the bottle.' We believe it's now incumbent on the cybersecurity industry to recommend clear guidelines that will allow all of us to benefit from this increased productivity, without the associated security sacrifices," says Danny Allan, chief technology officer at Snyk. "This latest research also clearly shows that the scaling of AI-coding tools must be a collaborative effort. CTOs should aim to work side by side and trust their DevSecOps team leaders so that together we can safely reap the full benefits of GenAI over the long-term."

Overall the security of AI-generated code is not a major concern for the majority of organizations surveyed. Almost two-thirds (63.3 percent) of respondents rated security as either excellent or good, with only 5.9 percent rating it as bad.

Again there's a disconnect though with 38.3 percent of AppSec personnel saying AI coding tools are 'very risky'. AppSec respondents also take issue with their organizations security policies concerning AI coding tools. Almost a third (30.1 percent) of AppSec team members say their organization's AI security policies are insufficient, compared to 11 percent of C-suite respondents and 19 percent of developers/engineers. 19 percent of C-suite respondents say AI coding tools aren't risky at all, while only 4.1 percent of AppSec respondents agree with that statement.

You can get the full report from the Snyk site.

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