The Impact of AI-Assisted Development on Software Security: A Study of Gemini and Developer Experience

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Jost, Nadine, Berens, Benjamin, Karl, Manuel, Horstmann, Stefan Albert, Johns, Martin, Naiakshina, Alena
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Jost, Nadine
Berens, Benjamin
Karl, Manuel
Horstmann, Stefan Albert
Johns, Martin
Naiakshina, Alena
author_facet Jost, Nadine
Berens, Benjamin
Karl, Manuel
Horstmann, Stefan Albert
Johns, Martin
Naiakshina, Alena
contents The ongoing shortage of skilled developers, particularly in security-critical software development, has led organizations to increasingly adopt AI-powered development tools to boost productivity and reduce reliance on limited human expertise. These tools, often based on large language models, aim to automate routine tasks and make secure software development more accessible and efficient. However, it remains unclear how developers' general programming and security-specific experience, and the type of AI tool used (free vs. paid) affect the security of the resulting software. Therefore, we conducted a quantitative programming study with software developers (n=159) exploring the impact of Google's AI tool Gemini on code security. Participants were assigned a security-related programming task using either no AI tools, the free version, or the paid version of Gemini. While we did not observe significant differences between using Gemini in terms of secure software development, programming experience significantly improved code security and cannot be fully substituted by Gemini.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_15298
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Impact of AI-Assisted Development on Software Security: A Study of Gemini and Developer Experience
Jost, Nadine
Berens, Benjamin
Karl, Manuel
Horstmann, Stefan Albert
Johns, Martin
Naiakshina, Alena
Software Engineering
Human-Computer Interaction
The ongoing shortage of skilled developers, particularly in security-critical software development, has led organizations to increasingly adopt AI-powered development tools to boost productivity and reduce reliance on limited human expertise. These tools, often based on large language models, aim to automate routine tasks and make secure software development more accessible and efficient. However, it remains unclear how developers' general programming and security-specific experience, and the type of AI tool used (free vs. paid) affect the security of the resulting software. Therefore, we conducted a quantitative programming study with software developers (n=159) exploring the impact of Google's AI tool Gemini on code security. Participants were assigned a security-related programming task using either no AI tools, the free version, or the paid version of Gemini. While we did not observe significant differences between using Gemini in terms of secure software development, programming experience significantly improved code security and cannot be fully substituted by Gemini.
title The Impact of AI-Assisted Development on Software Security: A Study of Gemini and Developer Experience
topic Software Engineering
Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.15298