Developers adopt AI tools but trust issues persist, survey finds

Stack Overflow has released the results of its 2025 Developer Survey, detailing the perceptions and habits of more than 49,000 technologists across 177 countries.

The AI trust gap

The survey indicates a significant disparity between AI adoption and trust among developers. While 84% of respondents use or plan to use artificial intelligence tools in their workflow, nearly half (46%) report that they do not trust the accuracy of AI-generated output. This marks a substantial rise from 31% indicating a lack of trust in the previous year.

This year's expanded artificial intelligence section included 15 new questions, addressing topics such as the utility of AI agent tools, the impact of AI on developers' jobs, and the phenomenon of "vibe coding".

"The growing lack of trust in AI tools stood out to us as the key data point in this year's survey, especially given the increased pace of growth and adoption of these AI tools. AI is a powerful tool, but it has significant risks of misinformation or can lack complexity or relevance. With the use of AI now ubiquitous and 'AI slop' rapidly replacing the content we see online, an approach that leans heavily on trustworthy, responsible use of data from curated knowledge bases is critical. By providing a trusted human intelligence layer in the age of AI, we believe the tech enthusiasts of today can play a larger role in adding value to build the AI technologies and products of tomorrow," said Prashanth Chandrasekar, CEO of Stack Overflow.

The survey found that 75% of users do not trust AI-generated answers, and 45% find debugging AI-generated code time-consuming. Ethical and security concerns are prevalent, with 61.7% citing these as reasons for hesitancy, while 61.3% wish to maintain full understanding of their code.

AI use and productivity

Despite low overall adoption, AI agents are associated with productivity improvements. Only 31% of developers currently use AI agents, but among those, 69% report increased workplace productivity. Meanwhile, 17% are planning to adopt such tools, while 38% are not planning to use them at all.

A majority (64%) of developers do not see AI as a threat to their employment, though this figure has declined slightly from the previous year's 68%.

Platforms and tools

Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio remain the most used Integrated Development Environments (IDEs). New AI-enabled IDEs have entered the market, with Cursor at an 18% usage rate, Claude Code at 10%, and Windsurf at 5% among respondents.

Among large language models (LLMs), OpenAI's GPT series is the most popular, used by 81% of developers surveyed. Claude Sonnet received 43% usage, and Gemini Flash 35%.

Vibe coding and new ways of learning

'Vibe coding', defined as generating software from LLM prompts, was explored for the first time. While AI tools are being adopted for learning and development, nearly 77% of developers indicated that vibe coding is not part of their professional workflow. The trend is more relevant for less experienced developers seeking a rapid start, but it comes with a trade-off in the level of trust and confidence in the output.

Community platforms continue to play an important role. Stack Overflow is the most common platform, used or planned to be used by 84% of respondents, followed by GitHub at 67%, and YouTube at 61%. Notably, 35% of respondents reported consulting Stack Overflow when confronted with AI-related issues.

The survey shows that 69% of developers have learned a new technology or programming language in the past year, with 36% focusing specifically on AI-enabled tools. Usage of AI tools for learning to code has risen to 44%, up from 37% last year. Top resources remain technical documentation (68%), online resources (59%), and Stack Overflow (51%). For those learning AI-specific skills, 53% used AI tools.

Gen Z developers (aged 18-24) are more likely to engage with coding challenges, with 15% participating compared to an overall average of 12%. Additionally, a higher proportion of this age group prefers chat-based and challenge-based learning approaches than other cohorts.

International responses and technology adoption

The United States, Germany, India, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Ukraine, Poland, Netherlands, and Italy were the top ten countries by survey participation. Trust in AI tools differs by region; India saw the highest proportion of developers expressing some or significant trust in AI at 56%, followed by Ukraine at 41%. Other countries showed lower levels of trust, including Italy (31%), Netherlands and United States (28%), Poland (26%), Canada and France (25%), United Kingdom (23%), and Germany (22%).

Python continues to gain in popularity, with a seven percentage point increase since 2024. JavaScript (66%), HTML/CSS (62%), and SQL (59%) remain popular programming languages. Docker usage grew by 17 percentage points to 71%, marking it as a widely adopted tool in cloud and infrastructure development.

PostgreSQL holds the position as the most sought-after database technology, with 47% planning to use it in the next year or continuing usage, marking its third year at the top in this category. For documentation and collaboration, GitHub leads at 81%, followed by Jira (46%) and GitLab (36%).