ActiveState Study Finds AI-Assisted Development Costs 13,900 Engineering Hours a Year

ActiveState released a study on October 20, 2026 finding that each engineer spends at least 139 hours a year fixing or revisiting AI-assisted development, equivalent to at least 13,900 hours annually for an organization with 100 engineers. PR Newswire published the findings.

What The AI Remediation Bill Found

The AI Remediation Bill surveyed 307 enterprise security, governance, platform, and engineering leaders in North America and Western Europe, plus 10 in-depth practitioner interviews, conducted in July and August 2026. The research was commissioned by ActiveState and carried out by Moving Horizon. Respondents work at organizations with 1,000 or more employees, and the study surveyed engineers at organizations with engineering teams of 100 or more.

ActiveState is a Vancouver-based provider of a secure open source management platform, the Curated Catalog, with 79M+ vetted, source-built components across 12 language ecosystems, serving enterprise security and engineering teams.

AI-assisted development is delivering gains, with 93% of respondents reporting higher engineering productivity. Engineers spend at least 139 hours a year, more than 17 working days, fixing or revisiting that work. For an organization with 100 engineers, that adds up to at least 13,900 hours annually, equivalent to the annual working capacity of roughly seven full-time employees.

"AI is becoming a permanent part of how software gets built," said Abby Kearns, CEO of ActiveState. "But our research found engineers spend at least 139 hours a year, more than 17 working days, fixing or revisiting AI-assisted work. That's only engineering's share. Security, compliance, and operations pay the rest out of their own budgets, so the full bill stays hidden. The way to keep the gains is to govern open source as it enters the codebase."

Where The Remediation Costs Land

According to akta.pro company records, ActiveState appointed Abby Kearns as CEO in March 2026, with prior CEO Stephen Baker transitioning to the Board of Directors. The same records show the company launched the Curated Catalog in March 2026, a private repository of 79M+ vetted, rebuilt-from-source open source components targeting AI-generated code supply chain risk. ActiveState joined the Open Source Security Foundation as a member organization in May 2026, aligning with industry efforts around the EU Cyber Resilience Act.

The study found 76% of respondents had a software release delayed by unmanaged open source dependencies in the past year. 58% received a compliance or audit finding related to open source governance, and 32% confirmed a security incident traceable to an unmanaged dependency in the past two years. 83% say the overall cost of managing open source risk is rising, while 31% have formally quantified the cost of unmanaged open source risk and another 47% have only an informal estimate.

Other AI Governance Research

Censinet opened enrollment for its 2027 healthcare cybersecurity and AI benchmarking study on October 19, 2026, co-sponsored by the AHA, Health-ISAC, and HSCC, EIN Presswire reported. Participants must complete assessments by December 7, 2026. Ascendancy Advisors published research on October 6, 2026 examining Project Agincourt, the proposed Autonomous Warfare Command, and Army FASCOM, PRLog reported.

What The Report Sets Out Next

The full report itemizes each charge with the method behind it and sets out a five-step path that starts with quantifying the bill across teams. ActiveState published the report for download.