What is it about?
With the advent of Generative AI, it is unknown how GenAI will affect the creativity inherent to software development. This paper outlines a research agenda to investigate the impact of Generative AI on creativity in software development. Five independent research themes are described. Three themes cover more observable immediate effects related to the individual, team, and product. Two themes consider more indirect effects that may take time to play out, namely unintended consequences and the impact on broader society.
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Why is it important?
Generative AI already has a massively disruptive impact on society, including software development. Developers now have a powerful tool that can boost their productivity through automating code. Yet, beyond coding, its impacts are little explored, especially the effects on an overlooked but essential part of software development, namely creativity. As an example, Generative AI may help developers be more creative by acting as a creative partner to riff off or, through automation, give more free time for developers to think creatively. However, this could lead to Generative AI taking over creative work, with developers losing critical thinking skills. It is therefore essential to investigate the potential effects, both good and bad, while Generative AI is still nascent so we can better understand how to amplify or counteract some of the effects for the good of not just the software development profession but society as a whole.
Perspectives
I am grateful to my fellow authors for suggesting the use of the Mcluhan tetrad to explore the potential impacts of GenAI on creativity in software development. The Mcluhan tetrad allowed us to consider the effects of new technologies by asking us to consider what the technology (i) enhances, (ii) obsolesces, (iii) retrieves (from obsolescence), and (iv) reverses into. The tetrad provided a helpful framework to consider all the potential impacts, which we could shape into a research agenda. Using the tetrad, thinking of alternative future scenarios, and producing a research agenda was a new experience I enjoyed and learned a lot from. I thank my fellow researchers for proposing such an interesting research method.
Victoria Jackson
University of Southampton
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Impact of Generative AI on Creativity in Software Development: A Research Agenda, ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, May 2025, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3708523.
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