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Software developers have not rejected AI. The picture in Stack Overflow’s 2026 Developer Survey, and in CNN Business’s October 5, 2026 report by Lisa Eadicicco, is more selective. Many developers use AI coding tools for some tasks. They distrust the output unless they can check it, and some decline to use it where it would take them out of the problem-solving loop.
What the survey says about avoiding AI
Stack Overflow asked: “Do you try to avoid using AI tools or agents at work or school?” Respondents could pick a reason for avoiding AI. Of 13,857 respondents (Stack Overflow, 2026):
| Response | Share | Respondents |
|---|---|---|
| I do not avoid using AI at work or school | 41.3% | 5,728 |
| Concern over losing job skills or training an AI to replace you | 17.1% | 2,367 |
| Moral or ethical concerns | 15.2% | 2,108 |
| Privacy or security issues | 13.0% | 1,802 |
| Environmental concerns | 8.2% | 1,129 |
These are self-reported answers from people who took the survey. They are not a census of all software developers. The largest single group did not avoid AI. The most common stated reason for avoidance was about careers and skills, not about whether the tools work. Don’t compress this into a claim like “six in ten developers avoid AI”. That would ignore the question’s structure.
Trust is conditional, not absent
Stack Overflow also asked how much respondents trust the output of AI tools or agents in their workflow. Of 14,304 respondents (Stack Overflow, 2026):
#1 Best Overall
- 48.0% said they trust the output when they can easily verify it.
- 6.6% said they trust it for many tasks, including important work decisions.
The first figure suggests verification is the dividing line. A developer who can run a test or read a short diff can accept help cheaply. The same developer may be wary of output they can’t check quickly. The second figure shows that unconditional trust is rare.
Where developers say AI helps
Stack Overflow’s 2026 AI survey presents coding assistants and agents as a leading use case. CNN reports that respondents found AI useful for implementing code (a little more than 74%) and for debugging (about 72%). It reports 34.4% found it useful for other job functions such as communication and design. These are CNN’s reported figures, with its approximations, so check the full survey before reusing them as headline numbers.
Use and avoidance can sit in the same person. A developer may lean on AI for boilerplate and debugging, and still avoid it for design decisions, sensitive code or learning a new system. Each statistic answers a different question with a different denominator, so they don’t contradict one another.
Two engineers explain why they hold back
CNN’s report gives voice to the skeptics. These are individual accounts. They explain reasoning but don’t show how common it is.
Rank #3
Laura Housh: context and control
Software engineer Laura Housh told CNN, “I’ve tried to use it for coding, and I just can’t get behind it,” and “I don’t like losing control; I like critical thinking and curiosity.” CNN reports that she sees AI as able to offer direction or a second set of eyes. She says it lacks the context to be truly useful in her work.
Audrey Eschright: coding as understanding
Audrey Eschright, described by CNN as a software engineer with 20 years of experience, said, “Writing code is how you solve problems.” She added, “As a software engineer, the process of figuring out what a system does is to change it.” Her objection is about how developers learn a system, not about whether generated code runs. If you hand off the changing, you may lose the understanding.
A framework for deciding when to use AI
The sources don’t support a simple split between users and non-users. They point to five conditions that shape the decision. This is an interpretive checklist, not a survey recommendation.
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- Verifiability. Can you check the result quickly with tests, a compiler or a short review? The trust data suggests this matters most.
- Context. Does the tool know your codebase, constraints and business rules? Housh’s concern is that it often doesn’t.
- Your involvement. Will you still understand and be able to change the system? Eschright’s point is that understanding comes from the work.
- Your stated concern. Skills, ethics, privacy and security, and environmental impact were each chosen by a measurable share of respondents. Your employer’s policy and your own values may rule out some uses.
The job-skills worry and the wider mood
The skills concern is the top avoidance reason in the survey. Stack Overflow CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar told CNN, “People have to completely retool their jobs, and so it is quite unnerving for folks to know exactly how much of what they’re doing will be automated.”
Best Value
CNN also reports weak job satisfaction among respondents. Just 22.3% described themselves as happy with their current roles, and nearly one in three said they were unhappy, up from 28.4% the prior year. These are CNN’s figures from the survey, so confirm the exact wording and denominator before quoting them. CNN says respondents also cited burnout, tech fatigue, economic uncertainty and unclear upward mobility. AI is one factor among several, so don’t attribute all the unhappiness to it.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to read these findings
- CNN says the survey covered about 30,000 developers across 169 countries. Individual questions have smaller denominators, such as 13,857 and 14,304, so quote percentages with their own question.
- Respondents who choose to take a developer survey may not represent all programmers.
- Attitudes are not measurements. Trust levels and avoidance reasons say nothing on their own about how capable AI tools are or how many jobs they will displace.
The Bottom Line
Developers are using AI where results are easy to verify, and holding back where it threatens their understanding, their skills or their values. Most respondents did not avoid AI, but a large minority named a reason to. Only 6.6% trusted it for many tasks, including important work decisions.
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