Arena Finds A.I. Agents Spend 17% of Time Writing Code as Research Takes 10%
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 4
Arena Finds A.I. Agents Spend 17% of Time Writing Code as Research Takes 10%
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 4
Summary
17% of tracked agent use went to code-writing in recent weeks, making software tasks the biggest category in Arena’s Agent Mode data across hundreds of thousands of A.I. users.
10% of use went to research, with image creation, document generation such as graphs and spreadsheets, and brainstorming close behind in the rankings.
About 5% of activity covered creative writing or tutoring, while other common uses included code debugging and general chat.
The data suggests agents are being used less as simple chatbots and more as tools that can act through other software—such as spreadsheets, calendars and email—to complete multi-step work.