GCP – Announcing the 2025 DORA Report: State of AI-Assisted Software Development

Today, we are excited to announce the 2025 DORA Report: State of AI-assisted Software Development. Drawing on insights from over 100 hours of qualitative data and survey responses from nearly 5,000 technology professionals from around the world. 

The report reveals a key insight: AI doesn’t fix a team; it amplifies what’s already there. Strong teams use AI to become even better and more efficient. Struggling teams will find that AI only highlights and intensifies their existing problems. The greatest return comes not from the AI tools themselves, but from a strategic focus on the quality of internal platforms, the clarity of workflows, and the alignment of teams.

AI, the great amplifier

As we established from the 2024 report as well as the special report published this year called “Impact of Generative AI in Software Development”, organizations are continuing to heavily adopt AI and receive substantial benefits across important outcomes. And there is evidence of learning to better integrate these tools into our workflow. Unlike last year, we observe a positive relationship between AI adoption on both software delivery throughput and product performance. It appears that people, teams, and tools are learning where, when, and how AI is most useful. However, AI adoption does continue to have a negative relationship with software delivery stability.

This confirms our central theory – AI accelerates software development, but that acceleration can expose weaknesses downstream. Without robust control systems, like strong automated testing, mature version control practices, and fast feedback loops, an increase in change volume leads to instability. Teams working in loosely coupled architectures with fast feedback loops see gains, while those constrained by tightly coupled systems and slow processes see little or no benefit.

Key findings from the 2025 report

Beyond this central theme, this year’s research highlighted the following about modern software development:

• AI adoption is near-universal: 90% of survey respondents report using AI at work. More than 80% believe it has increased their productivity. However, skepticism remains as 30% report little or no trust in the code generated by AI, a slightly lower percentage than last year but a key trend to note.

• User-centricity is a prerequisite for AI success: AI becomes most useful when it’s pointed at a clear problem, and a user-centric focus provides that essential direction. Our data shows this focus amplifies AI’s positive influence on team performance.

• Platform engineering is the foundation: Our data shows that 90% of organizations have adopted at least one platform and there is a direct correlation between a high quality internal platform and an organization’s ability to unlock the value of AI, making it an essential foundation for success.

The seven team archetypes

Simple software delivery metrics alone aren’t sufficient. They tell you what is happening but not why it’s happening. To connect performance data to experience, we conducted a cluster analysis that reveals seven common team profiles or archetypes, each with a unique interplay of performance, stability, and well-being. This model provides leaders with a way to diagnose team health and apply the right interventions.

The ‘Foundational challenges’ group are trapped in survival mode and face significant gaps in their processes and environment, leading to low performance, high system stability, and high levels of burnout and friction. While the ‘Harmonious high achievers’ excel across multiple areas, showing positive metrics for team well-being, product outcomes, and software delivery. 

Read more details of each archetype in the “Understanding your software delivery performance: A look at seven team profiles” chapter of the report.

Unlocking the value of AI with the ‘DORA AI Capabilities Model’

This year, we went beyond identifying AI’s impact to investigating the conditions in which AI-assisted technology-professionals  realize the best outcomes. The value of AI is unlocked not by the tools themselves, but by the surrounding technical practices and cultural environment.

Our research identified seven capabilities that are shown to magnify the positive impact of AI in organizations.

Where leaders should get started

One of the key insights derived from the research this year is that the value of AI will be unlocked by reimagining the system of work it inhabits. Technology leaders should treat AI adoption as an organizational transformation.

Here’s where we suggest you begin:

• Clarify and socialize your AI policies

• Connect AI to your internal context

• Prioritize foundational practices

• Fortify your safety nets

• Invest in your internal platform

• Focus on your end-users

The DORA research program is committed to serving as a compass to teams and organizations as we navigate the important and transformative period with AI. We hope the new team profiles and the DORA AI capabilities model provide a clear roadmap for you to move beyond simply adopting AI to unlocking its value by investing in teams and people. We look forward to learning how you put these insights into practice. To learn more:

• Download the full report
• Join the DORA community
• Share this overview with your colleagues