Organizations that are most aggressively adopting AI see brighter future for their company, according to 2026 State of Engineering Management
BOSTON, May 7, 2026 — Jellyfish, the leading Software Engineering Intelligence Platform, published the 2026 State of Engineering Management, which tracks the evolving role of R&D teams by surveying engineering leaders and individual contributors. The report reveals that engineering – among the most mature disciplines in terms of AI adoption – is playing a crucial role in the growth and strategy of most businesses.
“The most aggressive adopters of AI are beginning to pull away from more hesitant competitors,” said Andrew Lau, CEO and co-founder of Jellyfish. “The role of the engineer is transforming as a result. Data is the difference between being overwhelmed by this wave of change and marshalling the new tools effectively to unlock new levels of AI potential. Organizations need hard data to drive measurable impact using AI coding tools and communicate their ROI to the C-suite and the board beyond.”
The seventh annual report surveyed more than 600 full-time professionals in engineering, including individual contributors, managers, and executives. Respondents ranged from early-stage startups to enterprises with more than 500 engineers, with roles from engineering operations to InfoSec to platform engineering.
Findings from the 2026 State of Engineering Management include:
- AI is moving the needle. Six in 10 (64%) believe they are achieving at least a 25% increase in developer velocity and productivity using AI, an increase from 2025. Only four respondents said AI is slowing them down.
- AI adopters are pulling away. Respondents with very high AI adoption are more likely than those with low adoption to say AI increases their job satisfaction, their team’s overall efficiency, and productivity. They’re also more likely to believe their company’s growth outlook is better than last year.
- Engineering productivity is top of mind. 84% of respondents said engineering productivity is a top management concern for them, and three in four believe engineering productivity is a strategic concern for their business.
- Claude Code surged to the top. Claude Code, made generally available in May 2025, is now the most popular AI coding tool, followed by Gemini Code Assist and GitHub Copilot. Code writing, review, and explanation are the top AI use cases.
- Engineering is impacting the bottom line. Long considered an area of the business that takes and executes orders, engineers now have the ear of those at the top of the organization. Nearly nine in 10 respondents believe the engineering organization at their company helps the business grow, informs business strategy, and makes the overall business work more efficiently.
The report’s findings are backed by Jellyfish AI Engineering Trends, a quantitative analysis of AI transformation in software engineering based on data from more than 1,000 companies, 200,000 engineers, and 37 million pull requests (PRs). More than half of the companies in Jellyfish’s regularly-updated study use AI coding tools consistently, and 64% generate a majority of their code with AI assistance. The incentive is clear: over the last three months, companies in the top quartile of AI adoption have seen 2x the PR throughput of low adopters.
The 2026 State of Engineering Management is available today.
Research Methodology
Jellyfish surveyed 636 full-time professionals globally, in various engineering roles, including individual contributors, managers, and executives. Respondents come from companies that range from small engineering teams with fewer than 10 people to large enterprises with more than 500 engineers. The SEMR was conducted in March 2026 via an online survey tool.
About Jellyfish
Jellyfish is the leading Software Engineering Intelligence Platform, helping more than 700 companies including DraftKings, Keller Williams and Blue Yonder, leverage AI to transform how they build software. By turning fragmented data into context-rich guidance, Jellyfish enables better decision-making across AI adoption, planning, developer experience and delivery so R&D teams can deliver stronger business outcomes. Learn more at jellyfish.co.
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About the author
Jellyfish is the leading Software Engineering Intelligence Platform, helping more than 700 companies including DraftKings, Keller Williams and Blue Yonder, leverage AI to transform how they build software. By turning fragmented data into context-rich guidance, Jellyfish enables better decision-making across AI adoption, planning, developer experience and delivery so R&D teams can deliver stronger business outcomes.
