---
title: "Tasks delegated to AI agents — Knowledge data 2026"
url: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/knowledge/data/know-agent-delegate
year: 2026
chapter: "knowledge"
question: "KnowAgentDelegate"
section: "AI adoption and cost"
licence: "ODbL 1.0 (https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1-0/)"
---

# Tasks delegated to AI agents

Code tasks dominate AI use (73% write code, 62% debug); critical ops like deploying (10%) are rarely delegated.

Asked as: For each job function, which tasks have you delegated to an AI tool or agent in the last 30 days? (`KnowAgentDelegate`, multi select, optional, v2026.1)

## Options offered

1. Writing, editing, or generating code
2. Debugging or troubleshooting
3. Reviewing code, pull requests, or technical changes
4. Writing or maintaining tests
5. Writing or updating documentation
6. Making technical design or architecture decisions
7. Planning, scoping, or estimating work
8. Changing production code, systems, or infrastructure
9. Deploying or releasing software
10. Monitoring systems, logs, metrics, or alerts
11. Investigating an incident, outage, or production issue
12. Maintaining dependencies, packages, or development environments
13. Finding or fixing security, privacy, or compliance issues
14. Analyzing data, reports, or business metrics
15. Onboarding to a new project, tool, system, or codebase
16. Answering questions from teammates, customers, users, or stakeholders
17. Coordinating work across teams or functions
18. None of the above

## Results

### All Respondents

n = 13,756

|  | Respondents | Percent |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Writing, editing, or generating code | 10,027 | 72.9% |
| Debugging or troubleshooting | 8,552 | 62.2% |
| Writing or maintaining tests | 6,960 | 50.6% |
| Writing or updating documentation | 6,642 | 48.3% |
| Reviewing code, pull requests, or technical changes | 6,182 | 44.9% |
| Making technical design or architecture decisions | 3,629 | 26.4% |
| Investigating an incident, outage, or production issue | 3,560 | 25.9% |
| Planning, scoping, or estimating work | 3,461 | 25.2% |
| Answering questions from teammates, customers, users, or stakeholders | 2,941 | 21.4% |
| Analyzing data, reports, or business metrics | 2,773 | 20.2% |
| Onboarding to a new project, tool, system, or codebase | 2,706 | 19.7% |
| Finding or fixing security, privacy, or compliance issues | 2,676 | 19.5% |
| Changing production code, systems, or infrastructure | 2,601 | 18.9% |
| Maintaining dependencies, packages, or development environments | 2,547 | 18.5% |
| None of the above | 2,255 | 16.4% |
| Monitoring systems, logs, metrics, or alerts | 1,864 | 13.6% |
| Deploying or releasing software | 1,346 | 9.8% |
| Coordinating work across teams or functions | 774 | 5.6% |

### Daily AI Users

n = 8,265

|  | Respondents | Percent |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Writing, editing, or generating code | 7,480 | 90.5% |
| Debugging or troubleshooting | 6,503 | 78.7% |
| Writing or maintaining tests | 5,566 | 67.3% |
| Writing or updating documentation | 5,310 | 64.2% |
| Reviewing code, pull requests, or technical changes | 4,902 | 59.3% |
| Making technical design or architecture decisions | 3,005 | 36.4% |
| Investigating an incident, outage, or production issue | 2,962 | 35.8% |
| Planning, scoping, or estimating work | 2,861 | 34.6% |
| Answering questions from teammates, customers, users, or stakeholders | 2,444 | 29.6% |
| Analyzing data, reports, or business metrics | 2,253 | 27.3% |
| Onboarding to a new project, tool, system, or codebase | 2,245 | 27.2% |
| Finding or fixing security, privacy, or compliance issues | 2,235 | 27.0% |
| Changing production code, systems, or infrastructure | 2,246 | 27.2% |
| Maintaining dependencies, packages, or development environments | 2,159 | 26.1% |
| None of the above | 213 | 2.6% |
| Monitoring systems, logs, metrics, or alerts | 1,582 | 19.1% |
| Deploying or releasing software | 1,151 | 13.9% |
| Coordinating work across teams or functions | 653 | 7.9% |

### Weekly AI Users

n = 1,913

|  | Respondents | Percent |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Writing, editing, or generating code | 1,264 | 66.1% |
| Debugging or troubleshooting | 965 | 50.4% |
| Writing or maintaining tests | 623 | 32.6% |
| Writing or updating documentation | 580 | 30.3% |
| Reviewing code, pull requests, or technical changes | 570 | 29.8% |
| Making technical design or architecture decisions | 226 | 11.8% |
| Investigating an incident, outage, or production issue | 200 | 10.5% |
| Planning, scoping, or estimating work | 209 | 10.9% |
| Answering questions from teammates, customers, users, or stakeholders | 173 | 9.0% |
| Analyzing data, reports, or business metrics | 203 | 10.6% |
| Onboarding to a new project, tool, system, or codebase | 165 | 8.6% |
| Finding or fixing security, privacy, or compliance issues | 143 | 7.5% |
| Changing production code, systems, or infrastructure | 104 | 5.4% |
| Maintaining dependencies, packages, or development environments | 126 | 6.6% |
| None of the above | 222 | 11.6% |
| Monitoring systems, logs, metrics, or alerts | 82 | 4.3% |
| Deploying or releasing software | 36 | 1.9% |
| Coordinating work across teams or functions | 26 | 1.4% |

### Monthly/Infrequent AI Users

n = 550

|  | Respondents | Percent |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Writing, editing, or generating code | 228 | 41.5% |
| Debugging or troubleshooting | 195 | 35.5% |
| Writing or maintaining tests | 79 | 14.4% |
| Writing or updating documentation | 90 | 16.4% |
| Reviewing code, pull requests, or technical changes | 83 | 15.1% |
| Making technical design or architecture decisions | 35 | 6.4% |
| Investigating an incident, outage, or production issue | 47 | 8.5% |
| Planning, scoping, or estimating work | 39 | 7.1% |
| Answering questions from teammates, customers, users, or stakeholders | 32 | 5.8% |
| Analyzing data, reports, or business metrics | 31 | 5.6% |
| Onboarding to a new project, tool, system, or codebase | 29 | 5.3% |
| Finding or fixing security, privacy, or compliance issues | 29 | 5.3% |
| Changing production code, systems, or infrastructure | 15 | 2.7% |
| Maintaining dependencies, packages, or development environments | 18 | 3.3% |
| None of the above | 147 | 26.7% |
| Monitoring systems, logs, metrics, or alerts | 17 | 3.1% |
| Deploying or releasing software | 9 | 1.6% |
| Coordinating work across teams or functions | 8 | 1.5% |

In context: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/knowledge/data.md