Building generative AI applications is too hard, developers say
When everyone touts the benefits of generative artificial intelligence, telling the world how much easier it will make all of our lives, many developers who actually have to build those miracle apps are of a different opinion, according to a new survey sponsored by IBM.
The survey gathered input from more than 1,000 enterprise developers in the US, who enumerated the challenges they face in creating generative AIapplications.
Unsurprisingly, one key issue is the skills gap. Less than one quarter of application developers (24%) consider themselves experts in generative AI when asked to rate their proficiency and professional experience in the field. Among the seven self-identified categories of developer surveyed (AI developer, data scientist, software engineer, system developer, machine learning (ML) engineer, software developer, IT engineer, AI engineer, and application developer), the only groups in which a majority considered themselves experts in generative AI were the AI developers and data scientists. Less than half of those styling themselves as ML engineers (43%) and AI engineers (38%) view themselves as generative AI experts.
“This speaks to the skills gap in the generative AI space,” said Ritika Gunnar, general manager, Data and AI at IBM, in a blog post. “For many developers, this is new terrain with a steep learning curve — and fast innovation cycles mean new technology is constant.”
