Building software got cheap. Knowing what to build didn't — the 2026 data
The cost of building software collapsed — 41% of all code was AI-generated in 2025 — while the cost of knowing what to build didn't move. The data behind the shift.
Building software got cheap. Knowing what to build didn't — the 2026 data
The cost of building software collapsed. The cost of knowing what to build didn't move. Here's the data behind the shift — and why almost nothing in the tooling stack was rebuilt for the expensive half.
Building got cheap — fast
- 41% of all code written in 2025 was AI-generated.
- 84–93% of developers use or plan to use AI coding tools, up from 76% a year earlier (DORA 2025, JetBrains AI Pulse).
- In a controlled study of 4,800 developers, GitHub Copilot users finished coding tasks 55% faster (1h11m vs 2h41m).
Cursor, Claude Code, Bolt, Lovable, v0 — the time to turn an idea into working software dropped by an order of magnitude in about two years. If your bottleneck was ever "can we build it," it mostly isn't anymore.
But most of what gets built is never used
- 80% of software features are rarely or never used. Just 12% of features drive 80% of usage (Pendo, aggregated across finance, HR, education, logistics, healthcare, e-commerce).
- Public cloud-software companies invested up to $29.5 billion building features that are rarely or never touched (Pendo).
- ~43% of startups fail from poor product-market fit / no market need — the #1 or #2 root cause across a decade of post-mortems (CB Insights).
Cheaper building doesn't fix this. It amplifies it. When shipping is the constraint, a wrong bet costs weeks. When shipping is free, you can build the wrong thing faster than ever.
And the people who should catch it can't
- Product managers spend only about 27% of their time on strategy — ~73% goes to tactics and execution (Pragmatic Institute).
- Roughly 52% of a PM's time goes to unplanned "firefighting."
Keep reading
Can AI replace product managers? What the 2026 data actually says
94% of PMs use AI daily — but only ~6% for strategy, and 43% of startups still fail on product-market fit. Why AI replaces the busywork, not the judgment.
Where a product manager's week actually goes — and why strategy keeps losing
The average manager spends ~13 hours a week in meetings and ~60% of the day on "work about work." For product managers, only ~27% of the time is left for strategy. Where the week really goes.
Why 80% of software features are never used — and what the other 20% have in common
Pendo found 80% of software features are rarely or never used and 12% drive 80% of usage. It's rarely a functionality gap — and the 20% that stick share three traits decided before any code is written.