77% of Engineering Leaders Say AI Integration Is a Nightmare – Here’s What Gartner Revealed
STAMFORD, CONN., May 22, 2025 — A revealing new survey by Gartner shows 77% of engineering leaders who feel moderate to significant levels of difficulty integrating AI capabilities into applications, despite the pressure to produce smarter software across the industry. These findings came from a study done with 400 U.S and U.K.-based software engineering leaders from October to December 2024.
Building on the growing power of AI agents and assistants, engineering leaders want to embed AI into app functionality, yet face fragmented ecosystems, complex toolchains, and steep learning curves. 71% have also mentioned using AI tools as a key pain in the software workflow.
Gartner currently values the AI application development platforms market at $5.2 billion, with dozens of players, from nascent startups to more mature hyperscalers, all competing to relieve integration woes. The company advises leaders to opt for platforms offering well-integrated ecosystems rather than mixing and matching different tools and services, which may later hinder scaling, consistency, and speed at innovation.
“With CEOs identifying AI as the technology that will most impact their industry, interest in offerings like AI agents is driving the most momentum,”
Said Jim Scheibmeir, VP Analyst at Gartner. “Even with business leaders focusing more on this technology and despite the growing hype, execution is not easy.”
“Engineering leaders should opt for AI application development platforms or those with the best ecosystem, rather than a combination of disparate vendors, large language models (LLMs) and AI services,” said Scheibmeir.
“This approach enables scaling, reuse and consistency in an area of technology and software engineering that is still very novel.”
Beyond tooling, AI is also reshaping the workforce. It is forecasted by Gartner that, by the year 2028, 40% of software team members will be from nontraditional technical backgrounds as compared to 20% today. Areas of engagement have expanded to include design, psychology, and philosophy, bringing in fresh perspectives to AI-powered problem-solving.
As AI becomes more collaborative, engineering talent strategies are evolving toward skill-based hiring supported by intelligent assessments and AI-driven learning pathways.
“Bringing in team members from outside of science, technology and math fields, such as design, psychology and the arts, can introduce fresh perspectives and creative problem-solving approaches,”
Said Nitish Tyagi, Principal Analyst at Gartner. “This diversity can also lead to more innovative solutions and a richer, more inclusive user experience.”
“The future will be dominated by composable or fusion product teams that consist of software engineers, UX designers, product managers and even data scientists coming from both technical and nontechnical educational backgrounds,” said Tyagi.
In the near term, engineering teams must pair strong fundamentals in logic and algorithms with creative, inclusive thinking to harness GenAI’s full potential.
Gartner’s findings will be further explored at the Gartner Application Innovation & Business Solutions Summits in Las Vegas, Tokyo, and London throughout 2025.
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