Gartner unveils top strategic software engineering trends for 2025 and beyond

Gartner has outlined six key strategic trends that software engineering leaders should prioritize to accelerate innovation and implement future-ready engineering practices. These trends emphasize the growing role of AI, talent strategies, and sustainability.

1. AI-Native Software Engineering
AI will be embedded across the entire software development life cycle, enabling autonomous or semi-autonomous task execution. By 2028, 90% of enterprise developers are expected to use AI code assistants, shifting their roles toward orchestration, problem-solving, and system design while balancing human oversight with automation.

2. Building LLM-Based Applications and Agents
Large language models (LLMs) are enabling software to interact more intelligently and autonomously. Gartner predicts that by 2027, 55% of engineering teams will build LLM-based features. Successful adoption will require rethinking strategies, upskilling teams, and implementing robust guardrails for risk management.

3. GenAI Platform Engineering
Organizations will increasingly integrate generative AI (GenAI) capabilities into internal developer platforms, with 70% of platform teams ...