Our new Monday Merge, hot off the processor!

We’re so excited to welcome you to the first edition of the Monday Merge! What’s that you ask? It’s what will help you start your week with a much-needed fix of all things AI-powered DevSecOps, plus insights from the team at GitLab. So grab some coffee (or tea!), sit back, and enjoy!

GitLab 17.4 is here with over 140 updates

We’d like to give a huge shout-out to the 220 contributions we received from our GitLab community that helped make GitLab 17.4 a reality! Here are a few highlights from the 140+ improvements that are now at your fingertips with this latest release:

• More context-aware Code Suggestions using open tabs – Now you can elevate your coding workflow and receive more context-aware Code Suggestions using the contents of other open tabs. This improvement uses the content of your open editor tabs to provide more relevant and accurate code recommendations.

• Auto-merging when all checks pass – Merge requests must pass many required checks before they are mergeable. When you’re responsible for merging code, it can be hard to keep track of all of these events and know when to come back and check if a request is ready to be merged. GitLab 17.4 now supports Auto-merge for all checks in merge requests, enabling eligible users to set a merge request to Auto-merge even before all the required checks have passed.

• Extension marketplace in the web IDE – GitLab 17.4 introduces the extension marketplace in the Web IDE on GitLab.com. With this, you can discover, install, and manage third-party extensions while enhancing your development experience.

👉 Check out the latest release of GitLab 17.4 here!

GitLab Advanced SAST

Next, let’s talk about security. Our new Advanced SAST scanner delivers more accurate results, eliminating the noise of false positives that plague most SAST solutions. Natively built into the GitLab DevSecOps platform, it provides a seamless developer experience without integration overhead. By reducing false positives, shortening remediation time, and improving development velocity, teams can ship more secure software, faster.

👉 Find out more about GitLab's Advanced SAST.

3 Software Development Challenges Impacting AI Productivity Gains

In her recent article in Forbes, Sabrina Farmer shared key challenges for AI in software development, including how AI training gaps, toolchain sprawl, and outdated productivity metrics can hinder AI benefits.

The three key software challenges identified in the interview were:

1. The AI Training Gap

There is a perceived gap between the AI training received by individual contributors and C-level executives. This is because organizations still view AI as a potential replacement for developers rather than a tool that enables more creative and strategic human-centered work. To fulfill AI’s goal, organizations must supplement their investments in AI with investments in training and development resources that allow teams to build momentum and motivation over time.

2. Toolchain Sprawl

One overlooked factor that can detract from developer experience and impact overall productivity is toolchain sprawl, or having multiple point solutions across software development workflows. Toolchain sprawl further adds cost and complexity, generates silos, and makes it more challenging to standardize processes across teams. Before incorporating new AI tools, organizations should evaluate their existing toolchains to determine areas where they can streamline or eliminate disparate tools to avoid the strain of integrating excess tools with AI solutions.

3. Outdated Productivity Metrics

Many organizations struggle to quantify the impact of AI-powered tools on their developer productivity. Traditional metrics, such as lines of code, code commits, or task completion, are insufficient when assessing development’s impact on a business’s bottom line. The best approach to modernizing measurement practices begins with consolidating quantitative data from throughout the software development lifecycle with insights from developers on how AI is supporting or hindering their daily work.

👉 Read Sabrina's full article on Forbes.

Accelerate Your AI Adoption with these 8 Strategies

Emilio Salvador recently authored an article for The New Stack, sharing 8 key strategies to help leaders accelerate AI adoption. These strategies empower organizations to stay agile and competitive in a fast-evolving digital landscape.

He suggested creating a governance model and identifying the goals and objectives of AI adoption. By prioritizing high-impact AI use cases that directly support business outcomes, companies should focus on areas where AI could create significant value. He also felt that by establishing guidelines, leaders could ensure that AI was used responsibly and effectively.

According to Emilio, companies that used AI-driven code development tools reported faster release cycles and fewer bugs in production. The benefits of code assistants included faster security cycles, enhanced productivity, and resource optimization.

It was also important to prioritize continuous upskilling to safely, securely, and responsibly unlock AI’s potential and adopt a continuous learning approach, where AI solutions are constantly refined and improved based on feedback, new data, and technological advances.

By integrating AI into the entire software development process, developers could spend more time on strategic tasks, reduce cognitive load, and deliver greater value to organizations and end users.

👉 Read about Emilio's 8 strategies for AI adoption on The New Stack.

Join us at the DevSecOps World Tour

Of course, we’ve saved the best for last! Make sure you don’t miss out on our DevSecOps World Tour. We’ll be visiting London on October 16 and Singapore on November 13, where we’ll share our product roadmap as well as success stories from industry leaders. You’ll also have the chance to network with your peers who are co-creating the software that powers our world. Check out a sneak peek of what to expect here.

👉 Learn more and register to join us!

Before we conclude this first edition of our Monday Merge, here’s one of my favorite quotes from Stanford Professor Dr. Fei Fei Li:

“The tools and technologies we’ve developed are really the first few drops of water in the vast ocean of what AI can do”. 

Until next time—happy merging!

Fatima Sarah Khalid | Developer Advocate, GitLab

PS: To stay up to date with all the latest happenings and developments in the world of DevSecOps, don’t forget to hit subscribe.