As technology continues to evolve, so too does the way we write and analyze code. One exciting development in recent years has been the use of generative artificial intelligence (generative AI) for code generation and code analysis. These advancements have the potential to make software development faster, more efficient, and more accurate. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at how Salesforce AI Research is powering Einstein for developers and discuss how its advancements will change the landscape of software development with Salesforce.

Generative AI for code (Apex)

Code generation is a technique used to facilitate or automate the code writing process. Essentially, it involves using machine learning (ML) algorithms to analyze large amounts of existing code, and then generate new code based on that analysis.

This is particularly useful for repetitive tasks, such as creating boilerplate code or implementing commonly used algorithms. One of the biggest benefits of code generation is that it can save developers a lot of time. Rather than writing every line of code from scratch, they can use AI-powered tools to generate large portions of code automatically. This not only speeds up the development process, but also reduces the risk of human error.

Code generation has many benefits, including:

1. Consistency and standardization: Automating the creation of repetitive code elements helps ensure consistency and standardization in the codebase
2. Rapid prototyping: Generative code generation can speed up the prototyping process by quickly creating boilerplate code
3. Reduced code complexity: Generative code generation simplifies code by automating the creation of common patterns and structures, making codebases more scalable and easier to maintain

Einstein will provide Salesforce developers with those benefits as part of the IDE experience in VS Code and Code Builder. Using natural language input within your IDE, you will be able to have code created for you, based on the requirements you specify.

The machine learning algorithms that power the experience are trained on in-house models and are enriched with best-in-class code patterns provided by Salesforce.

Static and dynamic Apex analysis with Scale Center

Another area where AI is making significant strides is in code analysis. As software projects become increasingly complex, it becomes more difficult for humans to accurately analyze and understand all of the code involved. This is where we are adding a new capability (in pilot this year) for Apex analysis as part of Scale Center. With this capability you can quickly and accurately analyze large amounts of Apex code, identifying potential bugs, runtime inefficiencies, and other issues.

This will save developers and organizations a significant amount of time and effort, as they no longer need to manually comb through every line of code to identify potential issues. One of the biggest benefits of this new capability is that it can identify potential issues that humans might miss, at build time and at runtime.

AI-driven code analysis and code generation go hand in hand. Patterns in your code base through static and dynamic analysis will be fed back into the code generation mechanisms, and vice versa.

Conclusion

AI-powered code generation and code analysis tools are changing the way we write and analyze code. And those are only the first steps. Automated test generation, smart code explanations, and more are only some of the fields where those advancements will change the way we work. Check out our landing page for Einstein to learn more. Future, here we come — I can’t wait to see what’s coming next!

About the author

René Winkelmeyer leads as Senior Director of Developer Relations and cross-cloud efforts at Salesforce. His team focuses on MuleSoft, Marketing, Commerce, and next-gen developments. In his spare time, you may find him still coding on GitHub @muenzpraeger.