90% of devs now use AI (but don’t trust it)

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. The numbers are in, they usually’re contradictory: 90% of developers cannot work without AI anymore, yet a big percentage don’t trust their latest silicon assistant’s outputs.

Google’s latest DORA report just exposed the brand new development meta — using AI as a productivity multiplier while still keeping human judgment in the driving force’s seat.

In today’s AI rundown:

• Google reveals near-universal AI adoption for devs

• AI clears hardest CFA exam in minutes

• Make pixel-perfect website changes with AI

• MIT’s AI designs quantum materials

• 4 latest AI tools, community workflows, and more

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

GOOGLE

⚙️ Google reveals near-universal AI adoption for devs

The Rundown: Google Cloud just published its latest annual DORA report on ‘State of AI-assisted Software Development’, finding adoption of the tech has surged to 90% amongst developers — but confidence in AI outputs stays surprisingly low.

The small print:

• Google surveyed nearly 5,000 tech professionals, showing that developers now dedicate around two hours every day to working with AI assistants.

• Despite heavy reliance on the tools, 30% of developers trust AI outputs either “a bit of” or “by no means” while still continuing to integrate them into workflows.

• Productivity gains remain strong, with 80% reporting enhanced efficiency and 59% noting improvements to code quality despite the skepticism.

• Google also introduced the DORA AI Capabilities Model, outlining seven practices designed to assist corporations maximize AI advantages effectively.

Why it matters: AI is shifting from experimental tooling to essential infrastructure in the event world, however the trust issues alongside massive adoption may be a feature, not a bug — showing that devs are still harnessing the tech for productivity gains while still leveraging human judgement as the ultimate judge for quality control.

TOGETHER WITH SAMBANOVA

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AI & FINANCE

🤑 AI clears hardest CFA exam in minutes

The Rundown: Research from NYU has found that frontier models from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic can now pass all three levels of the CFA (chartered financial analyst) exam, including difficult Level III essay questions that eluded them two years ago.

The small print:

• NYU Stern and GoodFin researchers tested 23 language models on mock CFA Level III exams, finding nine models achieved passing scores above 63%.

• OpenAI’s o4-mini scored highest at 79.1% on the difficult essay portion, with Gemini 2.5 Pro and Claude 4 Opus reaching 75.9% and 74.9%.

• Models accomplished the exam in minutes versus the 1,000 hours humans typically spend studying across multiple years for all three levels.

• Human graders also consistently scored AI essay responses 5.6 points higher than automated grading systems.

Why it matters: The leap from failing essay sections two years ago shows the large shift in analytical capabilities, with reasoning models perfectly fitted to the complex considering process. With AI’s rise, human facets like client relationships and contextual judgement will develop into larger aspects than research reports and investment rationales.

AI TRAINING

💻 Make pixel-perfect website changes with Stagewise AI

The Rundown: On this tutorial, you’ll learn the way to use the Stagewise plugin so as to add an interactive toolbar to your live Cursor project, letting you choose UI elements directly and make precise visual edits without disrupting the layout or losing context.

Step-by-step:

• Open the Cursor IDE, go to the Extensions tab, seek for “stagewise,” and click on Install so as to add the extension

• Open your project, press Cmd + Shift + P, type “Stagewise,” and choose “Auto setup toolbar” to let it analyze and modify your project files

• Run your web app (e.g., npm run dev), click the Stagewise toolbar at the underside to enter selection mode, hover, and click on any element you would like to edit

• Write specific instructions like “Make this button fully rounded and add a subtle hover animation,” and send the prompt with the chosen element’s context

Pro tip: You possibly can select multiple elements directly to use consistent styling changes across your app. This is ideal for tasks like updating the font size of all of your headers or changing the color of several buttons in a single command.

PRESENTED BY IBM

🧠 Six shifts to assist reshape your AI strategy

The Rundown: AI is evolving, and small models can change the sport. IBM reveals six strategic shifts to assist businesses construct agentic AI that’s lean, scalable, and impactful.

Interested by how small models can assist in achieving leads to AI implementation? Begin by exploring:

• The shift that may also help turn AI from pilot to production

• The platform strategy that helps unlock reuse and speed

• The mindset that helps make responsible AI a business driver

Discover how these shifts can allow you to construct smart, fast AI systems.

AI & MATERIALS SCIENCE

🧬 MIT’s AI designs quantum materials

The Rundown: MIT researchers just launched SCIGEN, an AI framework that steers generative models to create materials with exotic quantum properties by enforcing geometric design rules during generation.

The small print:

• Researchers equipped popular diffusion models with structural rules, enabling them to create materials with geometric patterns linked to quantum properties.

• The AI system generated 10M potential materials, with 1M actually stable enough to exist in the actual world.

• Researchers successfully built two brand-new materials within the lab, TiPdBi and TiPbSb, confirming the AI accurately predicted their magnetic behaviors.

• Google DeepMind collaborated on the framework, which prevents AI from generating physically not possible structures that plague standard models.

Why it matters: Quantum computers promise to revolutionize fields like drug discovery, battery design, and clean energy — but they need special materials that hardly exist in nature. With systems like SCIGEN now generating tens of millions of candidates immediately, the wait for quantum breakthroughs is potentially being drastically shortened.

QUICK HITS

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• 👁️ Qwen3-VL – Alibaba’s latest SOTA vision-language model

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📰 All the things else in AI today

Microsoft officially added Anthropic’s Claude into 365 Copilot, marking the corporate’s first expansion outside of OpenAI for model alternative.

Elon Musk took a shot at Anthropic on X, saying “winning was never within the set of possible outcomes” for the Claude-maker.

SAP and OpenAI unveiled plans for “OpenAI for Germany,” a sovereign AI platform that can bring AI capabilities to German public sector staff, launching in 2026.

Cohere announced $100M funding that brings its valuation to just about $7B, fueled by enterprise demand for its security-first AI platform, North, and Command A models.

Cloudflare open-sourced VibeSDK, enabling anyone to deploy their very own AI-powered “vibe coding” platform with one click.

The U.K. government revealed that its latest AI-powered Fraud Risk Assessment Accelerator helped get well a record £480M in fraudulent claims over the past 12 months.

COMMUNITY

🤝 Community AI workflows

Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.

Today’s workflow comes from reader Angela C. in Cherry Hill, NJ:

“I used ChatGPT to bridge a language gap and help a lost older woman with a baby. Due to the AI, I gathered the data I needed, contacted the precise people, and got her safely reunited along with her family.”

How do you employ AI? Tell us here.

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: Alibaba’s Qwen3 blitz

• Read our last Tech newsletter: One OS to rule all drones

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: Winged robo-birds take flight

• Today’s AI tool guide: Make pixel-perfect website changes with AI

• RSVP to next live workshop @ 4PM Friday: Automated Deep Research

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown