What Sets Us Apart from Code Generation and Developer Documentation Tools

The AI market is saturated with companies specializing in code generation and developer documentation tools. While using AI to write code more quickly is exciting, this narrow focus overlooks AI's potential to accelerate software development and team productivity in other meaningful ways.

According to recent research from GitLab, “developers spend only 25% of their total work time writing code, using the remaining time to adjust, understand, test, and maintain code, as well as identify and mitigate security vulnerabilities. If the use of AI is consigned to code generation, organizations may miss some of the most transformative opportunities for AI in software development.”

At Driver AI, we are focusing on a different transformative opportunity: Using AI to revolutionize the way we do technical discovery and write technical documentation.

We differ from code generation and developer documentation tools in three critical ways:

1. Our customers use Driver AI to produce and update technical documentation. Not to generate code. Like code generation and developer documentation tools, we are using AI to help companies accelerate productivity so internal resources can be reallocated to higher priority tasks. However, where code generation tools are solely focused on writing code more quickly, Driver AI is focused on improving documentation, which in turn revolutionizes technical discovery, accelerates onboarding and improves technical planning.

2. We help companies produce internal documentation. We also help companies explore complex codebases to better understand their technology infrastructure. Today, we hear from customers that developers spend 15-20% of their time creating and updating internal documentation. Whether you’re onboarding new developers or an outside partner, moving engineers between projects, or working on project plans for new capabilities, codebase documentation is essential. But it is difficult to create a single set of documentation for all types of users. We’re building Driver AI to offer a simple, more cost-effective way to understand, document, and explore business-critical codebases for needs beyond just generating “tech docs.”

3. Driver AI is built for everyone. We offer explanations at the executive, business, and technical levels, so everyone from a non-technical product manager to a heavily technical subject matter expert can easily understand the code, produce documentation that explains it, and collaborate on the documentation. While developers may prefer an experience within an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), many other users are unfamiliar with these tools.

For context, there are many companies focused on the needs of the developer, such as code generation, refactoring, or developer documentation.

1. Code generation tools: Copilot and other code generation tools that tout documentation as a differentiator, like Swimm, Codeium, and Cursor are creating developer-first interactions. They are not meant for other stakeholders to interact with the documents.

2. Other documentation-specific tools: Other documentation tools include Readme and Redocly, which focus on API documentation. Mintlify and Stenography are closer to Driver AI in that they focus exclusively on documentation but they also exclusively focus on the developer persona.

3. Tangential to the problems of code understanding include refactoring tools: OpenRewrite, vFunction, Grit.io, and Refact.ai focus on automating updates to existing codebases, whereas Driver is focused on helping users understand the existing software and how to interact with it.

In a crowded AI market dominated by code generation and developer documentation tools, we are proud to lead the charge in exploring AI’s broader potential to accelerate technical discovery and the writing of technical documentation. In doing so, we are bridging the gap between technical understanding and broader business objectives across the organization, paving the way for accelerated time to market and meaningful innovation.

To learn more about the ways Driver AI can slash technical discovery and help your teams write technical documentation, shoot us an email here.