90% of Developers Now Use AI Tools at Work — JetBrains Survey 2026

What Did the JetBrains Survey Find?

JetBrains published research from its January 2026 AI Pulse survey of more than 10,000 developers. The headline number is striking: 90% of professional developers now use at least one AI tool at work regularly.

This isn't a prediction or a projection — it's a measurement of what's already happening across the global developer workforce.

Which AI Coding Tools Are Developers Actually Using?

GitHub Copilot leads workplace adoption, but the real story is Claude Code's rapid rise. It has climbed to share second place alongside Copilot, each used by 18% of developers in professional settings.

This is a significant jump from Claude Code's position just two surveys ago. The trend suggests that developers are gravitating toward AI tools that handle complex, multi-file codebase tasks rather than simple line completion.

How Good Are These AI Tools at Real Coding?

The JetBrains data shows Claude Code scoring 80.8% on SWE-bench Verified — the benchmark that measures real bug fixes across actual GitHub repositories. This is the highest published score for complex debugging and large-codebase work.

What makes this meaningful is that SWE-bench doesn't test toy problems. It evaluates whether AI can fix real bugs in real open-source projects — the kind of work developers actually do daily.

What Does This Mean for Software Development?

The 90% adoption rate signals that AI-assisted development has crossed from early adoption into mainstream professional practice. Developers who aren't using AI tools are now the minority.

For teams and organizations, this means investing in AI coding tool licenses and training isn't optional — it's becoming a baseline expectation for competitive engineering teams.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does this mean AI is replacing developers? A: No. The survey shows developers using AI as a tool alongside their work, not instead of it. AI handles routine tasks while developers focus on architecture, design, and complex problem-solving.

Q: Should I switch from Copilot to Claude Code? A: They serve different strengths. Copilot excels at inline completion; Claude Code handles larger multi-file tasks and debugging. Many developers use both.

Q: How was this survey conducted? A: JetBrains surveyed over 10,000 professional developers in January 2026 as part of their regular AI Pulse research series.

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