This is self-reported productivity, in that devs are saying AI saves them about 4 hours per week. But let’s not forget the METR study that found a 20% increase in self-reported productivity but a 19% decrease in actual measured productivity.
(It used a clever and rigorous technique for measuring productivity differences, BTW, for anyone as skeptical of productivity measures as I am.)
https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-o...
That info is from mid 2025, talking about models released in Oct 2024 and Feb 2025. It predates tools like Claude Code and Codex, Lovable was 1/3 current ARR, etc.
This might still be true but we desperately need new data.
Let's also not forget the multiple other studies that found significant boosts to productivity using rigorous methods like RCTs.
However, because these threads always go the same way whenever I post this, I'll link to a previous thread in hopes of preempting the same comments and advancing the discussion! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46559254
Also, DX (whose CTO was giving the presentation) actually collects telemetry-based metrics (PR's etc.) as well: https://getdx.com/uploads/ai-measurement-framework.pdf
It's not clear from TFA if these savings are self-reported or from DX metrics.