The productivity impact of coding agents

A new study from the University of Chicago finds that companies merge 39% more PRs after Cursor's agents became the default.

In a groundbreaking study published by the University of Chicago's Computer Science department, researchers have quantified the significant productivity gains achieved by teams using AI coding agents. The results are remarkable: organizations that adopted Cursor's agent-based workflow saw a 39% increase in pull request merge rates compared to traditional development methods.

The study, conducted over six months across 50 participating companies, analyzed over 10,000 pull requests. Researchers found that not only were more PRs being merged, but the quality of code improved, with fewer bugs and better adherence to coding standards.

These findings validate our thesis that AI agents aren't just tools—they're transformative technologies that fundamentally change how software development happens. As more organizations adopt this approach, we expect to see even greater productivity gains across the industry.