Google is monitoring how AI is increasing the productivity of its engineers and has devised a particular metric to gauge this effect.
In an interview with the “Lex Fridman Podcast” last week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated that the business was closely examining the ways in which artificial intelligence was increasing the productivity of its software developers.
How much has AI improved the company’s engineering pace is the most crucial parameter, which they meticulously track. He stated. According to Pichai, the business thinks that it has experienced a 10% gain thus far.
According to a Google representative, the business measures the gain in engineering capacity generated by the usage of AI-powered tools, expressed in hours per week. In short, it’s a gauge of the amount of additional time engineers are regaining as a result of AI.
Pichai did not specify if Google anticipates that 10% figure to continue rising. Nonetheless, he stated that he anticipates the “next big wave” to be unlocked by agentic capabilities, which allow AI to act and make decisions more independently.
Google offers in-house tools to assist engineers with coding. The business introduced “Goose,” an internal code copilot trained on 25 years of Google’s technological history, last year. according to a previous Business Insider piece.
Although AI Google intends to hire additional engineers in the upcoming year, according to Pichai’s statement on the podcast. He stated, “The opportunity space of what we can do is expanding too,” and expressed his optimism that AI will eliminate some of the tedious tasks and free up time for more enjoyable engineering-related activities.
The business is also monitoring the amount of code written by AI inside Google’s premises, which appears to be rising. During the company’s most recent earnings call, Pichai stated that over 30% of Alphabet’s new code is produced by AI, up from an estimated 25% in October.
It’s not just Google. During his speech at London Tech Week on Monday, Microsoft UK CEO Darren Hardman said that 40% of the company’s code is now written by its GitHub Copilot coding helper, “allowing us to launch more products in the last 12 months than we did in the previous three years.”
Then he said, “It isn’t just about speed.”
Within a year, AI may manage half of Meta’s development work, according to a prediction made by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in April.
