Has AI made software development fun again?

The conversation around AI in software engineering has centred on one thing: productivity. How much faster can developers ship? How many hours can teams save? Those questions matter. But they miss something equally important.

Software engineering is a creative discipline, not just an output. At its heart, it's about solving problems, building new things, and collaborating with others to turn ideas into reality.

Fresh research from The Adaptavist Group, surveying 240 professional software engineers across the UK and US suggests that AI may be doing more than making developers faster. It may be helping them rediscover the joy of building.

Developers are enjoying their work again

For all the discussion about efficiency gains, one finding stood out above the rest; developers are happier.

According to the research, 74% of developers report greater enjoyment in their work now, while 67% say they feel more creative. These numbers point to something deeper than productivity.

Many developers entered the profession because they enjoyed creating things. They were drawn to the challenge of solving difficult problems, experimenting with new ideas, and seeing something come to life through code. Yet over time, much of the job became consumed by repetitive implementation work, detangling and fixing others' buggy code, and componentising old codebases. AI is helping remove some of that friction.

Instead of spending hours on these tasks, developers can focus more of their energy on design, problem-solving, experimentation, and innovation. The parts of the job that many engineers find most rewarding are becoming a larger part of their day again.

Software engineering is still a team game

When generative AI first emerged, some predicted the rise of the lone developer: a single engineer armed with AI tools, capable of building entire products in isolation The research suggests that AI is actually making teamwork more valuable. As developers become individually more productive, the challenge shifts from generating code to coordinating feature or value creation. More code means more reviews, more decisions, more dependencies, and more opportunities for teams to drift apart if they are not aligned. Building software has never been solely about writing code. It requires a shared understanding, collective decision-making, and ongoing collaboration among engineering, product, design, security, and operations teams. AI has amplified this need.

The faster individuals can build, the more important it becomes for teams to move together. It's why a significant majority (81%) of developers in the research say that project management and team coordination matter more now than before.

"Rules control the fun": engineers believe in creating more structure

There's a common assumption that AI will flatten processes and see teams of developers moving in isolation from each other. The research suggests this is not what software engineers believe, or indeed want. They believe their organisations should be investing in:

Coordination. Creating clear ownership, stronger planning practices, asynchronous communication patterns, and automated testing that allows teams to absorb increased development velocity safely.
Judgment. Strengthening architectural oversight, domain expertise, and critical thinking so teams can distinguish good AI-generated solutions from bad ones.
Collaboration. Ensuring engineering, product, design, and security teams stay aligned around customer outcomes rather than simply shipping features faster.

What this means for engineering leaders

For engineering leaders, this shift requires a different mindset. When code generation becomes easier, the value of human contribution moves elsewhere. Leaders should spend less time focusing on raw output and more time enabling effective collaboration. That means:

Measuring quality, maintainability, and resilience alongside delivery speed
Investing in testing and validation systems that allow teams to move quickly without sacrificing confidence.
Helping junior developers build skills in review, architecture, debugging, and systems thinking.
Creating environments where knowledge-sharing and collaboration are rewarded and not treated as overhead

The goal has shifted from maximising coding capacity to supercharging a team's ability to solve problems together.

The real value of AI is more than speed

The popular narrative around AI often focuses on isolated working and job replacement, but that's not what many developers are experiencing. The story emerging from this research is surprisingly human. Developers are finding more enjoyment in their work, spending more time on creative problem-solving, less on repetitive implementation, and more on building things that matter.

Perhaps most importantly, they're being reminded that great software has never been created by code alone. It comes from people sharing ideas, challenging assumptions, solving problems together, and collectively bringing something new into the world. There’s no denying that AI is making software development faster, but its most meaningful impact could be something far simpler, which is helping teams rediscover the joy of building together.

Want to understand how developers are really using AI today?

Read Vibe Coding 2026, The Adaptavist Group's latest research report exploring how AI is changing software development, developer satisfaction, team dynamics, governance, and the future of engineering work.

Explore the research