GoKawiilHOW TEAMS BUILD AI usage patterns in software teams
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EDITION 01 - TIM QI (2026)
Tens of thousands of teams build software inside Linear every day. Over six years that’s given us a detailed picture of how product development happens, from before AI was widely adopted to now. Model companies and coding tools have published plenty on token usage and code volume, but that captures only one layer of the work. We’re unusually well placed to see the entire workflow behind building a product, from the first issue to the pull request that closes it. What we can’t see is AI usage that happens outside Linear, so this is a picture of adoption inside our own customer base, not the market at large. We look at three things across that transition. Who is using AI, how it reshapes where teams spend their time across Linear, and whether it changes how much they ship. Together they make a fixed point for where AI-assisted product development stands in 2026, and something to measure the next edition against.
Adoption by function
AI adoption has spread to every function Between January and June 2026 the share of users active on AI features more than doubled in every function. Product climbed fastest, from 12% to 34%, and even go-to-market, the function furthest from the codebase, went from 5% to 18%. We classify roles by normalizing job titles, which carries some error at the edges, but the pattern is too broad to be an artifact of labeling. Percentage of users active on Linear AI features (Last 30 days) by function
Founder +16pp Engineering +18pp Product +22pp Design +16pp GTM +13pp 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Percentage of users active on Linear AI features in the last 30 days, by function Segment Jan 2026 Jun 2026 Change Founder 14% 30% +16 percentage points Engineering 12% 30% +18 percentage points Product 12% 34% +22 percentage points Design 6% 22% +16 percentage points GTM 5% 18% +13 percentage points Jan 2026 Jun 2026 More info N = 127,000 paid users, active in both January and June 2026
Adoption by executive team
Adoption goes all the way to the top Executives are personally active on AI at rates that match or beat their teams. CEOs at companies of 201 or more people went from 9% to 36% in six months, the largest jump of any cut in this report, suggesting the most senior leaders are learning the technology by using it rather than reading about it. Company size comes from third-party enrichment, so this cut covers fewer workspaces than the rest of the report. Percentage of users active on Linear AI features (Last 30 days) by executive team
Founder 201+ +16pp 51-200 +12pp 1-50 +16pp CEO 201+ +27pp 51-200 +11pp 1-50 +14pp CPO 201+ +21pp 51-200 +15pp 1-50 +25pp CTO 201+ +24pp 51-200 +16pp 1-50 +17pp 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% Percentage of users active on Linear AI features in the last 30 days, by executive team Segment Jan 2026 Jun 2026 Change Founder, 201+ 10% 26% +16 percentage points Founder, 51-200 15% 27% +12 percentage points Founder, 1-50 15% 31% +16 percentage points CEO, 201+ 9% 36% +27 percentage points CEO, 51-200 15% 25% +11 percentage points CEO, 1-50 7% 21% +14 percentage points CPO, 201+ 3% 24% +21 percentage points CPO, 51-200 10% 26% +15 percentage points CPO, 1-50 11% 36% +25 percentage points CTO, 201+ 11% 35% +24 percentage points CTO, 51-200 12% 28% +16 percentage points CTO, 1-50 16% 33% +17 percentage points Jan 2026 Jun 2026 More info N = 13,300 executives, active in both January and June 2026
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