Artificial intelligence coding assistants are rapidly becoming a standard part of software development. 

Today’s infographic shows the top AI tools being used for software development tasks. 

It’s based on the State of Code Developer Survey 2026, published by Sonar, a software quality company that says it analyzes more than 750 billion lines of code daily. 

The survey gathered responses from 1,149 professional developers globally during October 2025. 

All respondents were adults working full-time or self-employed in technology-related roles and had used AI for work within the past year.

TL;DR

• New survey data shows GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT are now used by roughly three in four developers who already use AI at work.
• Developers are increasingly using multiple AI tools together rather than choosing a single platform.

Ranked: Most Used AI Tools for Software Dev.

The most widely used tool in the survey was GitHub Copilot, used by 75% of respondents. Close behind was ChatGPT at 74%, effectively placing the two platforms in a statistical tie.

That narrow gap is one of the dataset’s most striking findings.

GitHub Copilot was designed specifically for software development and is deeply integrated into coding environments. ChatGPT, by contrast, is a general-purpose AI assistant. 

Yet developers appear to be using both at nearly identical rates, suggesting that conversational AI systems are competing directly with specialized coding tools.

The data also indicates that developers are increasingly relying on multiple AI systems simultaneously rather than committing to a single platform.

The combined percentages across tools exceed 100%, indicating that respondents often selected multiple products. 

A developer may use Copilot for autocomplete suggestions, ChatGPT for debugging explanations, and Claude for reviewing architecture or longer reasoning tasks.

That shift matters because it suggests AI coding is evolving beyond simple code completion into a broader workflow built around AI-assisted engineering.

The rise of Cursor

One of the more surprising findings in the data is the rise of Cursor, which reached 31% adoption.

This happened despite competing against products backed by some of the world’s largest technology companies.

Meanwhile, tools from major enterprise players fell short of expectations. 

Amazon Q Developer reached 12%, while JetBrains AI stood at 17%. 

OpenAI Codex, one of the earlier coding-focused AI systems, recorded 21%.

The findings align with a growing wave of public comments from major technology companies about AI-generated code.

What are Key Players Saying? 

Executives at Microsoft have increasingly discussed how AI now generates substantial portions of internal code. 

Companies including Snap Inc., Shopify, and Duolingo have also expanded their focus on AI-assisted software development and productivity tools.

The data suggests those shifts are not isolated corporate experiments but part of a broader industry transition.

Another important pattern in the survey is Microsoft’s strategic position in the AI coding market. 

Through GitHub Copilot and its partnership with OpenAI, Microsoft is closely tied to the two most widely used tools in the dataset.

That gives the company influence across both integrated coding assistants and conversational AI workflows.

ELI5

Most developers who already use AI at work now rely on tools like GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT to help write and fix code.

Many people use several AI tools together rather than just one. The data shows AI coding assistants are becoming as normal for programmers as spreadsheets are for office workers.

Source: 

State of Code Developer Survey