Developers Warn of Rising Technical Debt from AI Code Tools

Survey Reveals Trust Decline Amid AI Adoption Surge

Stack Overflow’s 2025 Developer Survey canvassed over 49,000 coders across 177 countries, uncovering a paradox in enterprise AI adoption.

While 84% of developers report using or planning to use AI tools — up from 76% in 2024 — only 33% trust their accuracy this year, down from 43% in 2024.

Favorability has tumbled too: 60% now view AI coding assistants positively, compared to 77% in 2023.

“Almost right” solutions emerge as the top blocker for 66% of developers, and 45% say debugging AI-generated code demands more time than writing from scratch.

Erin Yepis, Senior Analyst at Stack Overflow, notes that AI excels at generating plausible code but often falters on complex problems — only 29% of developers believe AI can handle intricate tasks.

This “almost right” phenomenon insidiously inflates technical debt, as engineers spend hours dissecting AI output rather than innovating new features.

Rapid AI tool adoption has outpaced enterprise governance, creating security and integration risks. Developers cite ethical and security concerns as a key reason (61.7%) to still seek human expertise.

Stack Overflow remains the top community resource at 84% usage, with developers reverting to human answers 35% of the time after encountering AI missteps.

Strategic Recommendations for Tech Leaders

• Invest in AI-tailored debugging and code review frameworks to catch silent errors before they hit production.
• Maintain expert oversight by linking AI tooling with human code audits and continuous education programs.
• Adopt AI in stages, integrating with current workflows to balance speed with reliability.
• Enhance AI literacy through training that empowers developers to evaluate and correct AI-generated code.

Organizations that address the “almost right” dilemma and align governance with innovation will transform AI assistants from sources of technical debt into genuine productivity multipliers.