Still just personal assistants? – A multiple case study of generative AI adoption in software organizations

IF 4.3 2区计算机科学 Q2 COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Information and Software Technology Pub Date : 2025-06-11 DOI:10.1016/j.infsof.2025.107805

Kai-Kristian Kemell , Matti Saarikallio , Anh Nguyen-Duc , Pekka Abrahamsson

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Context:

Generative AI (GenAI) is argued to transform software engineering (SE) in various ways, and GenAI tools show promise for various SE tasks. Software organizations across the globe are currently exploring the use of GenAI for SE.

Objective:

While numerous studies have recently been published on GenAI, few studies have looked at the adoption of these tools and their usage from an organizational point of view, focusing instead on individual users. Our objective is to understand how organizations adopt these tools and what their impacts are in industrial contexts, with a focus on the European perspective.

Method:

We conducted a multiple case study of seven European companies. We collected data through semi-structured interviews (n=15), as well as through longitudinal observation in one case company. All data were analyzed using thematic analysis.

Results:

We analyzed 28 transcripts, resulting in 456 quotations and 557 code occurrences split between 66 individual codes that were categorized under 6 high-level themes. We identified 25 types of tasks GenAI was currently being used for in our case organizations. We identified 12 benefits for GenAI in SE and 10 adoption and use challenges. Key adoption challenges for organizations include data privacy and legislative concerns, the emerging and fast-moving market of GenAI tools, difficulty of measuring the positive impact of the tools, and potential change resistance. For individuals, the key challenges are related to prompting, such as understanding what a good prompt is, and how to write prompts for specific tasks.

Conclusion:

GenAI adoption is becoming widespread in SE, but good practices and use cases are still emerging. While GenAI can potentially produce various benefits in SE, companies and individual users are facing various challenges in making the most of GenAI in SE. Overall, GenAI is still primarily used as a personal assistant.

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还只是私人助理吗？-软件组织采用生成式人工智能的多个案例研究

背景：生成式人工智能（GenAI）被认为以各种方式改变软件工程（SE）， GenAI工具显示出各种SE任务的前景。全球的软件组织目前正在探索GenAI在SE中的使用。目的：虽然最近在GenAI上发表了许多研究，但很少有研究从组织的角度看待这些工具的采用及其使用，而是关注个人用户。我们的目标是了解组织如何采用这些工具，以及它们在工业环境中的影响，重点是欧洲的视角。方法：我们对七家欧洲公司进行了多案例研究。我们通过半结构化访谈（n=15）以及对一家案例公司的纵向观察来收集数据。所有数据均采用专题分析进行分析。结果：我们分析了28个转录本，得到了456个引文和557个代码出现，分为66个单独的代码，分为6个高级主题。我们确定了GenAI目前在我们的案例组织中使用的25种任务类型。我们确定了GenAI在SE中的12个好处和10个采用和使用挑战。企业在采用GenAI时面临的主要挑战包括数据隐私和立法问题、GenAI工具的新兴和快速发展的市场、衡量这些工具的积极影响的困难，以及潜在的变革阻力。对于个人来说，关键的挑战与提示有关，比如理解什么是好的提示，以及如何为特定的任务编写提示。结论：GenAI的采用在SE中变得越来越普遍，但是良好的实践和用例仍在出现。虽然GenAI可以在SE中潜在地产生各种好处，但公司和个人用户在充分利用SE中的GenAI方面面临着各种挑战。总的来说，GenAI仍然主要被用作个人助理。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Information and Software Technology 工程技术-计算机：软件工程

CiteScore

9.10

自引率

7.70%

发文量

164

审稿时长

9.6 weeks

期刊介绍： Information and Software Technology is the international archival journal focusing on research and experience that contributes to the improvement of software development practices. The journal''s scope includes methods and techniques to better engineer software and manage its development. Articles submitted for review should have a clear component of software engineering or address ways to improve the engineering and management of software development. Areas covered by the journal include: • Software management, quality and metrics, • Software processes, • Software architecture, modelling, specification, design and programming • Functional and non-functional software requirements • Software testing and verification & validation • Empirical studies of all aspects of engineering and managing software development Short Communications is a new section dedicated to short papers addressing new ideas, controversial opinions, "Negative" results and much more. Read the Guide for authors for more information. The journal encourages and welcomes submissions of systematic literature studies (reviews and maps) within the scope of the journal. Information and Software Technology is the premiere outlet for systematic literature studies in software engineering.