Stack Overflow's annual survey of 100K+ developers: Rust, Kotlin, and Python most-loved languages, 73% more excited by AI than concerned about its dangers
Stack Overflow's annual survey shows Android developer language Kotlin has soared in popularity. — Video: Apps at risk …
Context & Ripple Effects
The 2018 edition extends a streak: Rust had already topped the love ranking in the 64K-developer 2017 survey, so its repeat win is confirmation rather than news — the real movement is Kotlin, which rides Google's push for Android development into the most-loved tier alongside Rust and Python.
The AI finding matters as a baseline: 73% excitement over concern in 2018 is the optimistic starting point that later editions complicate — by the 2023 survey, 70% of developers use or plan to use AI coding tools but only 3% highly trust them, turning early enthusiasm into a measured adoption-with-distrust posture.
First-order effects
- Kotlin's surge puts direct pressure on Java's default status for Android work, pushing Android teams and tooling vendors to prioritize Kotlin support now.
- Python's continued climb reinforces demand for Python-fluent hires and training content, consistent with HackerRank later finding Go and Python the top languages developers want to learn next.
Second-order effects
- Competing survey publishers lean into the same benchmark: Stack Overflow's love rankings become the reference point that HackerRank's 116K-developer study and The Register's 17K-developer count measure themselves against, each vying to define which languages are rising.
- Language communities compete for the goodwill dividend — Rust's repeated #1 finish gives its ecosystem a recruiting argument that newer entrants like Go must counter with learnability and job-market appeal.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, annual developer surveys harden into the industry's de facto scoreboard for language adoption, shaping corporate stack decisions and vendor roadmaps more than any single release does.
- The gap between 2018's AI excitement and 2023's low-trust usage suggests a structural shift: AI coding tools get adopted for productivity while trust, verification, and review practices become the binding constraint on how far they penetrate development workflows.
The trend: Developer-preference surveys show Rust holding a multi-year love streak while AI sentiment matures from blanket 2018 enthusiasm toward cautious, trust-constrained tool adoption.