The Gen AI Horizon: Build Software Smarter and Faster

Fifty-three percent of enterprises are using Gen AI right now to speed up software development. That’s for good reason. The software development lifecycle (or SDLC) already has checks in place to maintain quality assurance, regulatory compliance, and human oversight. As a result, it’s arguably the safest business process to augment with Gen AI.

But most orgs are only exploring proofs of concept that can fast-track coding – without considering the rest of the SDLC. That’s a mistake for any org that wants to achieve hyper-efficiency: a 10x productivity boost from end to end.

In this piece, we’ll explain why focusing on coding alone is such a serious problem. We’ll also share a smarter path forward: accelerating the entire SDLC with the help of an enterprise-ready Gen AI platform.

Gen AI Can – and Should – Do More Than Speed Up Coding

Gen-AI-assisted coding is so enticing that Gartner predicts 75 percent of software engineers will use AI code assistants by 2028. But if orgs focus on deploying AI for coding alone, they may inadvertently hamstring their software development process.

That’s because faster coding can quickly create bottlenecks both upstream and downstream. For instance, an AI-assisted software engineering team might code 50 percent more efficiently. But it might also force the product team to pump out requirements at a breakneck pace. And slam the QA team with dozens more features to test. 

Without Gen AI to assist with heavier workloads, the rest of the SDLC could screech to a halt – or worse, rely on cutting corners to keep things flowing. 
The good news is that Gen AI can support teams at every stage of software development. It’s the best way to avoid the bottlenecks above – and ultimately achieve hyper-efficiency. We’ll explain more in the next section.

To Achieve Hyper-Efficiency, Use Gen AI At Every Stage of Software Development

Gen AI can accelerate software development from end to end. Consider these six practical use cases:

Discovery and ideation: Gen AI can help generate ideas, define solutions to test, and better understand the range of user problems at hand. Instead of throwing ideas at the wall, Gen AI can function as a sort of funnel to help identify the most promising solutions.

Product design: Designers can use Gen AI to get a handle on user needs, create product visualizations, and even create videos to pitch prototypes. They can also use it to analyze user feedback – compressing months of work into weeks.

Backlog management: Manually breaking down the backlog can take as many as 16 hours every two weeks. But Gen AI can automate much of this work by defining priorities and code requirements in an easily digestible way. The result: the same work output in just 2 hours.

Understanding and maintaining code: In many enterprise environments, the codebase isn't new – some sections may be a decade old or more. Gen AI can help developers understand legacy code, generate up-to-date documentation, and identify where changes need to be made.

Testing and quality assurance: Gen AI can automatically generate both unit and integration tests to enable faster-paced testing overall.

Deployment and release management: Gen AI can assist in creating deployment scripts, release notes, and more – supporting smoother product launches and more agile release management.

When applied in tandem, each of these use cases can propel orgs toward hyper-efficient software development. The result, more often than not: faster time-to-market, higher quality products, and a more agile response to changing business demands.

An Enterprise-Ready Platform Can Deliver Quick Gen AI Wins

It’s clear that Gen-AI-powered software development can result in huge productivity gains. And the best part is that orgs don’t have to wait years and waste millions to see results.

With an enterprise-ready Gen AI platform like CI&T FLOW, orgs can use Gen AI today to achieve quick wins from end to end. 

FLOW gives orgs the flexibility to use a range of Gen AI tools (whether that’s the latest GPT, Claude, or Gemini model) for practically any task. The platform empowers development teams by equipping them with AI agents that function as sparring partners of sorts. These agents can augment human capabilities – and even improve them – without taking on the essential higher-level work that humans do best.

In fact, with FLOW-powered software development, companies like Bulla and Sami Saude have been able to see…

50 percent faster pre-development work.
80 percent faster test generation.
75 percent faster user story creation.

Used right, FLOW can actively transform the way software teams work. And with tools to enable hyper-efficiency, orgs can see rapid results in everything from new product creation to app modernization projects.

Feel Gen AI’s Impact From Week One

If there’s one thing we want you to take away from this piece, it’s that Gen AI doesn’t have to be daunting when it comes to augmenting software development. You can start using Gen AI on Monday and feel the impact before the week is out. And by integrating Gen AI into every phase of the SDLC, you can unlock new levels of productivity and innovation.

Of course, when it comes to hyper-efficiency, software development is just one area to set your Gen AI sights. Stay tuned for two more blog posts in this series that dive into more business processes worth accelerating.

In the meantime, if you’re curious about how to get started with FLOW, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’d love to start a conversation.

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