Senior developers are all in on vibe coding, but junior staff lack the experience to spot critical flaws
Senior software developers are among the most receptive to AI code generation tools, according to new research.
A study from Fastly shows roughly one-third of senior developers, classed as those with over 10 years of experience, regularly use AI tools to build software. This is nearly two and a half times the rate of junior colleagues, the study noted.
While Fastly said the study highlights the growing appeal of AI-generated code, there are notable downsides – mainly fixing faulty code. Developers across all levels reported issues in this regard, with time savings often being negated by manual remediation.
“Senior developers were also more likely [than juniors] to say they invest time fixing AI-generated code,” the company said in a blog post detailing the research. “Just under 30% of seniors reported editing AI output enough to offset most of the time savings, compared to 17% of juniors.”
Remediating faulty code has emerged as a key hurdle for developers using AI tools in recent months.
Google’s 2024 State of DevOps report noted growing developer concerns about code quality, for example. A similar study from Cloudsmith in June 2025 warned some enterprises were overlooking key security considerations in a bid to drive efficiency.
Analysis from Harness in January this year found the issue had reached such an extent that developers were growing frustrated with the new tools at their disposal.
More than two-thirds (67%) reported spending more time debugging AI-generated code than prior to the introduction of the tools. Around 68%, meanwhile, now spend more time resolving vulnerabilities.
Regardless, Fastly found that senior developers appear more than content with using AI tools, and are confident in their ability to spot potential issues during development.
More than half (59%) of senior devs said AI tools “help them ship faster overall” while 49% of juniors held the same view. Senior staff were also more likely to report “significant speed gains” (26%) compared to less experienced colleagues, (13%).
Experience breeds confidence
According to Fastly, a key factor behind the confidence observed among senior developers is that they’re “simply better equipped to catch and correct AI’s mistakes”.
“They have the experience to recognize when code ‘looks right’ but isn’t,” the company said. “That makes them more confident at using AI tools efficiently, even for high-stakes or business-critical code.”
Meanwhile, junior developers are typically more cautious about relying on AI, or “more likely to avoid using it in production at all”.
“More experienced engineers are not only using AI more aggressively, but are also trusting it more in production environments,” Fastly added.
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