GitLab Research: Governance & Security Key in AI Innovation

GitLab describes AI-powered software innovation as a transformative driver of revenue growth and productivity across enterprises.

In its 2025 report, The Economics of Software Innovation: £5B+ Opportunity at a Crossroads – produced with The Harris Poll – GitLab surveyed 253 UK C-level leaders to showcase the economic potential of AI while emphasising ongoing challenges around skills, governance and security in today’s fast-changing software development environment.

The report underscores that AI-driven software innovation has shifted from a niche technical function to a central business priority for 89% of UK executives surveyed.

The benefits are clear: organisations are seeing a 53% increase in revenue and a 54% uplift in developer productivity directly tied to AI-enabled innovation.

According to GitLab, developers have saved an average of 417 hours per year by automating routine tasks.

Scaled across the UK’s 465,000 developers, this equates to an estimated £5.12bn (US$7bn) in potential economic value – a strong indicator of AI’s immediate and transformative impact on software development as a driver of growth.

Creativity and collaboration are irreplaceable

While the report highlights the benefits of AI, it also reveals challenges behind the success story.

It notes that as companies accelerate adoption of agentic AI – systems capable of making independent decisions – the associated governance and security risks are rising in parallel.

Nearly three-quarters of executives, 74%, express concern over emerging cybersecurity risks from AI agents, with 61% specifically highlighting the threat of cyberattacks and 51% pointing to data privacy breaches.

In turn, 57% report adopting governance frameworks aligned with regulation, alongside third-party audits and internal AI policies to manage these risks.

This reflects a clear tension: the promise of AI innovation must be balanced with the human element that sustains long-term success. According to GitLab’s survey, 100% of executives agree that creativity, strategic vision and collaboration remain central to effective software development.

Despite rising ambitions for human-AI collaboration, 75% of current development work is still human-led, with AI delivering just 25%.

Notably, 72% of executives believe the ideal human contribution should remain at least half, reinforcing AI’s role as a complement rather than a replacement.

Amid these evolving dynamics, workforce upskilling stands as a critical priority.

Nearly 90% of UK executives stress the urgency of training employees to work seamlessly with AI tools.

Notably, 38% of executives view developer upskilling as AI’s single most valuable benefit.

For 46% of companies, return on investment is now measured beyond cost savings, with enhanced problem-solving cited as a key outcome.

A further 44% highlight faster time-to-market and improved customer experience, while the same share attribute these gains to AI-assisted talent development.

Louise Fellows, Vice President of UK at GitLab, stresses this human-AI partnership.

“AI-fuelled software innovation is an undeniable source of competitive advantage and economic impact, with 89% of executives in the UK saying that it's now a core business priority,” she tells Cyber Magazine.

“The companies pulling ahead are the ones blending AI with human expertise, leveraging agentic AI with intention, aligning software strategy with business value and building guardrails to innovate responsibly. 

“With £5+ billion per year in potential value at stake, the organisations that optimise this human-AI partnership today will define the future of software tomorrow.”

Navigating governance, security and talent

The momentum behind agentic AI adoption is undeniable, with 86% of executives surveyed by GitLab expecting it to become the industry standard within the next three years.

Emilio Salvador, GitLab’s Vice President of Strategy and Developer Relations, underscores the significant skill requirements this transition will place on organisations.

“When 86% of executives expect agentic AI to become the industry standard within three years, developers who can think systematically about human-AI workflows will be indispensable,” he shares with Cyber Magazine.

This points to a future where developers’ greatest value will come from orchestrating collaboration with AI rather than focusing solely on individual coding tasks.

Strategically, GitLab’s research shows software innovation has become a boardroom priority, with more than 90% of executives reporting strong leadership support.

Additionally, 78% indicate a readiness to allocate more than half of their IT budgets to accelerate software-driven growth, underscoring innovation’s central role in shaping enterprise strategy.

Louise adds: “The research reveals that 100% of UK executives think that human contributions are valuable for software development, with creativity and strategic vision as the most desired human inputs. 

“To be clear, this is not about AI replacing developers. It's about elevating human capabilities.”