The Impact of Generative AI on Creativity in Software Development: A Research Agenda
As GenAI becomes embedded in developer toolchains and practices, and routine code is increasingly generated, human creativity will be increasingly important for generating competitive advantage. This article uses the McLuhan tetrad alongside scenarios of how GenAI may disrupt software development more broadly, to identify potential impacts GenAI may have on creativity within software development. The impacts are discussed along with a future research agenda comprising five connected themes that consider how individual capabilities, team capabilities, the product, unintended consequences, and society can be affected.
Authors
- Rafael Prikladnicki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3351-4916)
- Paul Ralph (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7411-0857)
- André van der Hoek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7917-932X)
- Anielle Lisboa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2374-8914)
- Bogdan Vasilescu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4418-5783)
- Daniel Russo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7253-101X)
- Victoria Jackson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6326-931X)
- Maliheh Izadi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5093-5523)
- Sarah D’Angelo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9104-8365)
- Sarah Inman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0908-6926)
Institutions
- Google (United States) (US)
- Dalhousie University (CA)
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- Environment Canterbury (NZ)
- Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (BR)
- Carnegie Mellon University (US)
- Aalborg University (DK)
- Delft University of Technology (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology
- Published
- 2024-12-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3708523
- Citations
- 12
- Primary Topic
- Creativity in Education and Neuroscience
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 6.09
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada