"AI models are rapidly expanding the range of tasks they can perform, with significant implications for engineering. Frontier systems now sustain multi-hour reasoning: as of August 2025, METR found that leading models could complete 2 hours and 17 minutes of continuous work with roughly 50% confidence of producing a correct answer. This capability is improving quickly, with task length doubling about every seven months."
"Only a few years ago, models could manage about 30 seconds of reasoning - enough for small code suggestions. Today, as models sustain longer chains of reasoning, the entire software development lifecycle is potentially in scope for AI assistance, enabling coding agents to contribute effectively to planning, design, development, testing, code reviews, and deployment."
"As models gained stronger reasoning abilities, developers began interacting with agents through chat interfaces in IDEs for pair programming and code exploration. Today's coding agents can generate entire files, scaffold new projects, and translate designs into code. They can reason through multi-step problems such as debugging or refactoring, with agent execution also now shifting from an individual developer's machine to cloud-based, multi-agent environments."
AI models are expanding the range of tasks they can perform and now sustain multi-hour chains of reasoning. As of August 2025, METR measured leading models completing 2 hours and 17 minutes of continuous work with roughly 50% confidence of correctness. Task length is improving rapidly, roughly doubling every seven months. Models have progressed from about 30 seconds of reasoning to capabilities that put the full software development lifecycle in scope. Coding agents can plan, design, generate files, scaffold projects, debug, refactor, review code, and deploy, increasingly operating in cloud-based, multi-agent environments. Engineering leaders should begin building AI-native teams and processes to leverage these capabilities.
#ai-coding-agents #software-development-lifecycle #long-form-reasoning #cloud-based-multi-agent-systems
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