Developers are adopting AI tools faster than ever before, but their trust in what they produce is also falling off a cliff.
This is the core story from Stack Overflow’s 2025 Developer Survey, an annual check-in with the global developer community that has become a real bellwether for the industry. Drawing on the experiences of more than 49,000 developers from 177 countries, the report suggests the community is welcoming to AI tools, but has its eyes wide open to their risks.
84% of developers now use or plan to use AI in their work, up from 76% last year. It seems AI is well on its way to becoming a standard part of the developer’s toolkit. But, here’s the twist: almost half of them (46%) now admit they don’t trust the accuracy of the code or information these tools spit out. That’s a huge leap in distrust from 31% just twelve months ago.
Prashanth Chandrasekar, CEO of Stack Overflow, said: “The growing lack of trust in AI tools stood out to us as the key data point in this year’s survey, especially given the increased pace of growth and adoption of these AI tools. AI is a powerful tool, but it has significant risks of misinformation or can lack complexity or relevance.”
Chandrasekar believes we’re all seeing the reason for this growing scepticism from developers in AI tools online every day.
“With the use of AI now ubiquitous and ‘AI slop’ rapidly replacing the content we see online, an approach that leans heavily on trustworthy, responsible use of data from curated knowledge bases is critical,” he explained.
“By providing a trusted human intelligence layer in the age of AI, we believe the tech enthusiasts of today can play a larger role in adding value to build the AI technologies and products of tomorrow.”
This isn’t just a philosophical debate; it’s a practical, everyday problem. Ask any developer, and they might tell you about the time they spent hours trying to figure out why a seemingly perfect piece of AI-generated code was breaking everything. The survey backs this up, with 45% of developers citing the time sink of debugging code from AI tools as a major frustration.
So, if you could have an AI do all your coding, would you still want to talk to another person about it? The answer from the community is a resounding yes.
75% said the main reason is that they simply don’t trust the AI’s answers. Beyond that, many have security and ethical concerns (61.7%) or just want to be professionals who truly understand the tools of their trade (61.3%).
It’s no surprise, then, that developers are still flocking to community platforms built on human knowledge. Stack Overflow remains the top destination, and tellingly, more than a third of developers said they head there specifically after an AI tool has let them down. The platform remains the human safety net in an increasingly automated world.
What about the buzzier side of AI? New ideas like “AI agents” and “vibe coding” – where you describe what you want and the AI builds it – are getting a lot of press, but they haven’t really broken into the professional sphere. Only about a third of developers are using AI agents, and 77% say “vibe coding” is not part of their day job. For serious work, precision still trumps vibes.
And the big question: are the robots coming for their jobs? Most developers (64%) still don’t think so, viewing AI tools as more of a co-pilot than a replacement. That said, the number has slipped a little from 68% last year, hinting that a few more people are starting to wonder what the future holds.
Looking at the wider tech world, Python’s unstoppable rise continues, while Docker has become an almost essential tool for anyone working with cloud technologies. When it comes to trust on a global scale, it’s a mixed bag. Developers in India are the most optimistic about AI, while those here in the UK are among the most sceptical, with only 23% saying they trust its output.
In the end, the story of 2025 is one of a community navigating a powerful new technology with a healthy dose of realism. Developers are not rejecting AI tools; they are learning how to use them wisely, and in the process, they are rediscovering the irreplaceable value of human knowledge, collaboration, and trust.
(Photo by Simon Ray)
See also: Why developers still matter in the age of agentic AI
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