Creativity, Generative AI, and Software Development: A Research Agenda

TL;DR

This paper explores how generative AI could impact creativity in software development, proposing a research agenda to understand its effects on individual, team, and societal levels.

Contribution

It introduces a novel research agenda using McLuhan's tetrad to analyze potential impacts of GenAI on creativity in software engineering.

Findings

GenAI may enhance or hinder creativity depending on usage.

Multiple factors influence how GenAI affects developer creativity.

A comprehensive future research agenda is proposed.

Abstract

Creativity has always been considered a major differentiator to separate the good from the great, and we believe the importance of creativity for software development will only increase as GenAI becomes embedded in developer tool-chains and working practices. This paper uses the McLuhan tetrad alongside scenarios of how GenAI may disrupt software development more broadly, to identify potential impacts GenAI may have on creativity within software development. The impacts are discussed along with a future research agenda comprising six connected themes that consider how individual capabilities, team capabilities, the product, unintended consequences, society, and human aspects can be affected.