A new industry survey exploring the state-of-developers has uncovered growing distrust in AI and concerns about fatigue and burnout. While the overall response to the increasing use of AI is largely positive, growing concerns about the technology are clear, with little trust in the technology to make important decisions.

Stack Overflow’s annual survey is a useful look at how developers feel about the industry they work in, and highlights a growing friction between traditional software development and the growing role of AI tools.

The survey, by the Stack Overflow coding question-and-answer platform, also highlights a growth in solo employment, with 10.5% of respondents stating they freelance or are sole proprietors of a business, up from 3.9% in the previous years’ survey.

Developer burnout
One key takeaway from the survey is that 45.1% of developers state they are “complacent” in their current roles, with around a third (32.6%) of respondents describing themselves as “unhappy” (just 22.3% are “happy.”) Of that 45.1% figure, burnout or fatigue were cited as the main cause (21.1%).

While remote work is still popular (34.8% of developers work wherever), the survey surfaces unclear, ambiguous priorities as a challenge, something that may inform general fatigue – or, indeed, feelings about AI.

Although many developers use AI (and search) to solve problems, its growing use within coding is being met with caution.

Some 17.2% of developers don’t use AI tools, while assistants and agents are employed by 65.9%. But while developers are keen to learn new skills (52% have learned a new coding language in the past year), they are wary of AI’s consequences, with 17% concerned that it may replace them.

Critical skepticism
A read of the full survey paints a picture of an industry of skilled professionals finding their way in a new, unpredictable landscape – one that their own industry is responsible for.

Prashanth Chandrasekar, CEO of Stack Overflow says: “Developers are historically a highly skeptical group, and over the last year, as AI agents become rapidly more autonomous, that skepticism now acts as a critical safeguard.”

“As agents take on more work, developers need to know where an answer came from, what context informed the information that was produced or a decision that was made, and the most crucial piece — that they can actually verify its accuracy and relevance.

For those concerned about burnout and fatigue and their long-term careers, trust is perhaps the answer. “Trust is not a given when it comes to developers,” says Chandrasekar. “It is earned through transparency, source attribution, and rich technical context.”