New study reveals that AI is changing who builds software

A new study from Linear found that AI use in software development has spread far beyond engineers, reaching designers, marketers, and even CEOs, who spent 27% more time with AI tools in early 2026. Pull requests jumped 111% over two years, but faster code creation has shifted bottlenecks to validation and security. Notably, more work is being done, not less, and AI token spending does not reliably predict actual value delivered.