MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BairesDev®, one of the largest bootstrapped technology companies in the world, today released the Q3 2026 edition of its Dev Barometer, marking one year of quarterly tracking of how AI is reshaping software work. The findings draw on 705 developers across 60+ countries and, for the first time, 41 enterprise CTOs. In a year, the role has shifted from writing code to overseeing it.
This edition's findings show developers now save 13 hours a week coding with AI, nearly double the seven hours reported a year ago. But that time isn't being freed up. They're reinvesting it a layer above the code.
One year of AI on the job (Q3 2025 vs. Q3 2026 edition):
- Coding hours saved nearly doubled. Developers report saving 13 hours a week on coding, up from about 7 a year ago.
- AI cut the typing. The thinking got harder. Only 21% of developers now spend more than half their week writing new code from scratch. The rest of the week has moved up the stack: 67% spend more time reviewing AI-generated code and 52% spend more time debugging AI-introduced problems than a year ago, work that requires judgment about what to keep, fix, or reject.
- Learning hours more than doubled. Developers now spend on average 9 hours a week learning AI tools and new technologies, up from 4 hours a year ago.
- The skills and pay shift. AI tool fluency (29%), system architecture (20%), and human skills (15%) drive developer pay raises. Only 1 in 4 CTOs actively invests in human skills development.
- Adoption and fulfillment both climbed. 42% say AI writes at least half their code, up from 12%, while 86% find their role more fulfilling, up from 76%.
"Developers nearly doubled the time AI saves them in coding, to 13 hours a week. Not one of those hours came back. Reviewing check-ins. Fixing what the model broke. Learning next quarter's tool. A year ago we read the first seven hours as capacity, and we got that wrong. The time mostly moved up the stack, into work that takes more judgment than the coding it replaced," said Darren Shimkus, CEO of BairesDev.
Developers Are Now the Accountability Layer for AI-Generated Code
In Q1 2026, 51% of developers already reported that accountability for AI-generated code sat with them personally. What's new in Q3 2026 is that CTOs are confirming it: 78% have increased spending on code review, QA, and validation to support AI-generated work, and only 7% of developers say the ship decision has been entirely delegated to AI without their input.
The scrutiny tracks with how fast AI investment is growing overall. Gartner's May 2026 forecast projected worldwide AI spending will reach $2.59 trillion in 2026, up 47% year over year. BairesDev's data suggests a growing share of that spending is now being redirected toward review and validation, not adoption alone.
"In Q3 2025, 12% of developers said AI wrote half their code. Today it's 42%, and the decision to ship it still sits with one engineer, for far more code than it used to. That's why 78% of CTOs increased spending on review and validation. Every one of those dollars buys the same thing, which is an accountability layer that is currently one person deep," Shimkus added.
The Skills Getting Developers Raises in 2026 Are Not the Skills CTOs Are Funding
Among developers who got a raise this year, AI tool fluency ranked first as the driver (29%), followed by system design and architecture (20%) and human skills like communication, mentorship, and cross-functional collaboration (15%), ahead of the other technical AI specializations tested. And only 1 in 4 CTOs are actively investing in human skills, concentrating budget instead on AI tool fluency and data infrastructure.
One year of Dev Barometer data shows AI has scaled fast inside software teams, and by developers' own account has made the work more fulfilling. It has also quietly rewritten what the work is. The job hasn't gone away because of AI. It now sits a layer above the code: reviewing what AI produces, applying it to problems only a human understands, and staying fluent in tools that change every few months. That is a different kind of engineer, and a more valuable one.
About the Dev Barometer Survey
The Dev Barometer is BairesDev's quarterly global survey of software developers. Since 2025, the initiative has collected responses from 5,200+ engineers across 75+ countries. The Q3 2026 report gathered quantitative responses from 705 software developers across 60+ countries and 41 enterprise CTOs across Fortune 500 and mid-market organizations.
For more information visit https://bairesdev.com/research
About BairesDev
BairesDev provides nearshore software development services to some of the world's largest and most respected companies, like Google, Pinterest, Adobe, Rolls-Royce, Johnson & Johnson, and Salesforce. Backed by 4,000+ people across LATAM, BairesDev has delivered high-quality software in over 130 industries.
Join BairesDev's team by applying at https://jobs.bairesdev.com/. Or recommend a candidate in the Talent Referral Program: https://applicants.bairesdev.com/external-referral
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