Ananya Kapoor, software engineer at financial services company Stripe, uses Claude Code every day.

Sometimes she’s leveraging the AI assistant to explore a new idea; other mornings, she’s relying on it to investigate an error. The tool helps her understand how different components of code interact, and how those connections may lead to unexpected results.

“It’s pretty helpful…in terms of going in and really analyzing the code base,” Kapoor said, “because I think that is what is really tough for humans.”

And Kapoor is not alone in her choice of AI tool. According to an annual survey from software engineering intelligence platform Jellyfish, Claude Code is the most popular AI coding tool; Almost four in 10 (39%) of 636 surveyed global engineering professionals said they use it. Other top choices included Gemini Code Assist (35%), GitHub Copilot (31%), and OpenAI Codex (20%).

Which do IT pros prefer?—BH

Want to scare a software developer? Skip the ghost stories and go straight to judging them on how they leverage AI at their jobs.

According to a recent report from software company Harness, 54% of developers fear performance evaluations linked to their use of AI. The report is based on a commissioned survey of 700 practitioners and managers from the US, UK, France, Germany, and India.

Stage fright? More like AI fright. Developers’ fear partially stems from the idea that leaders are watching their every move closely, according to Harness SVP Trevor Stuart.

“You only could see what I sent in as a [pull request] previously. Now, you can see every keystroke,” Stuart said. “You can see how I’m writing that [pull request] and I think that’s a little bit of the fear that comes into this from a developer standpoint.”

Nis Frome, CRO at Coderbyte, added that using AI metrics as part of evaluations may have some developers breaking into a cold sweat because AI use might not effectively reflect productivity.

Don’t be scared! Or do; we can’t tell you what to do.—BM

DevSecOps: DevSecOps takes DevOps to another level, blending security into every stage of software development as opposed to having cybersecurity pros check for vulnerabilities after the software has been built. Learn more.

New roles, new responsibilities: It’s your tech C-suite moves for May.

Microsoft appoints Jon Friedman as company’s first chief design officer

Tech giant Microsoft created the role of chief design officer and filled the position May 14. Jon Friedman, a longtime Microsoft employee, will take on the role; he described it as one that will “reduce fragmentation, increase alignment, and make innovation at scale real across the company” in a post on LinkedIn announcing his appointment.

Friedman has been working his way through the Microsoft ranks since 2004. He was previously corporate VP of design and research.

“As the practice of design evolves, UX practitioners are becoming more technical, working across the full stack of the experience,” Friedman wrote on LinkedIn. “From interface and interaction design to the intelligence underneath, human-centered thinking has to be present at every layer.”

Carving out a role.—EH

CollabWORK connects you to the hidden job market through IT Brew and other trusted channels. Browse roles curated specifically for this community by clicking through to the job board.