This is self-reported productivity, in that devs are saying AI saves them about 4 hours per week. But let’s not forget the METR study that found a 20% increase in self-reported productivity but a 19% decrease in actual measured productivity.
(It used a clever and rigorous technique for measuring productivity differences, BTW, for anyone as skeptical of productivity measures as I am.)
Let's also not forget the multiple other studies that found significant boosts to productivity using rigorous methods like RCTs.
However, because these threads always go the same way whenever I post this, I'll link to a previous thread in hopes of preempting the same comments and advancing the discussion! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46559254
Also, DX (whose CTO was giving the presentation) actually collects telemetry-based metrics (PR's etc.) as well: https://getdx.com/uploads/ai-measurement-framework.pdf
It's not clear from TFA if these savings are self-reported or from DX metrics.
https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-o...
That info is from mid 2025, talking about models released in Oct 2024 and Feb 2025. It predates tools like Claude Code and Codex, Lovable was 1/3 current ARR, etc.
This might still be true but we desperately need new data.