一句话：混合方法研究揭示开发者如何用 AI 助手进行信息寻求，及其对生产力与技能发展的影响。
软件开发者的日常工作中约 32% 的时间用于寻求和使用信息以支持任务完成。尽管已有大量工作研究开发者的信息需求，但 AI 辅助工具如何改变其信息需求与信息寻求行为仍鲜有探讨。本文通过一项混合方法研究（mixed-method study），刻画了从业者借助 AI 进行信息寻求的行为，并考察其对自评生产力和技能发展的影响。研究发现，开发者越来越多地使用 AI 工具支持信息寻求，并将效率提升视为主要收益；同时也放大了有效使用 AI 工具的若干注意事项，尤其是在学习与技能培养方面——例如基础知识储备对于引导与校验 AI 所提供信息的重要性。这些发现为将 AI 工具作为信息检索系统与学习辅助手段有效集成到开发者工作流中提供了启示。
About 32% of a software practitioners' day involves seeking and using information to support task completion. Although the information needs of software practitioners have been studied extensively, the impact of AI-assisted tools on their needs and information-seeking behaviors remains largely unexplored. To addresses this gap, we conducted a mixed-method study to understand AI-assisted information seeking behavior of practitioners and its impact on their perceived productivity and skill development. We found that developers are increasingly using AI tools to support their information seeking, citing increased efficiency as a key benefit. Our findings also amplify caveats that come with effectively using AI tools for information seeking, especially for learning and skill development, such as the importance of foundational developer knowledge that can guide and inform the information provided by AI tools. Our efforts have implications for the effective integration of AI tools into developer workflows as information retrieval systems and learning aids.
@inproceedings{paperbot9011,
title = {The Evolution of Information Seeking in Software Development: Understanding the Role and Impact of AI Assistants},
author = {Ebtesam Al Haque and Chris Brown and Thomas D. LaToza and Brittany Johnson},
booktitle = {FSE},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1145/3696630.3731665}
}