PNC Financial Services’ junior and senior coders are split on how much they can rely on generative AI for code generation and writing. 

Junior coders use gen AI for code writing more than senior coders, Scott Kinross, senior vice president and software engineering director at PNC Financial Services, said at Bank Automation Summit U.S. 2024 on March 18.

“We had done our own pilot across several platforms for code development and code generation,” Kinross said. “Our senior developers didn’t find much use of it, our junior developers probably tried to rely on it too heavily and lost productivity.” 

Senior developers at PNC said gen AI provides codes in a verbose manner, and they would prefer writing a code in as few lines as possible, Kinross said. On the other hand, he said mid-level developers are using gen AI tools effectively. 

Gen AI for code generation 

Since the launch of OpenAI in November 2022, gen AI has affected almost all segments of the economy, including code generation and code writing. 

“AI code assistants boost developer productivity and developer experience by enabling several use cases,” Arun Chandrasekaran, vice president and analyst at think tank Gartner, told Bank Automation News. “In the near future, we can expect incremental improvements in developer productivity, satisfaction and software velocity in financial services.” 

Gartner has found that some AI assistants are “helping both senior developers in writing boilerplate code and also in aiding junior developers,” he said. 

AI-driven tools can learn from a coder’s style and preferences and can detect patterns while providing suggestions that align with a writer’s coding habits, Chandrasekaran said.  

While gen AI and AI can improve productivity, “a strong governance is required either way, but more so for junior coders, to avoid code quality and security loopholes,” he said. 

More news from Bank Automation Summit US 2024 is available here.