BT Group’s digital unit heralded the adoption of generative AI applications as a major milestone for the company and industry as it revealed the technology had been used to write more than 100,000 lines of code for its software engineers.

The company highlighted it had used AWS platform Amazon CodeWhisperer to assist its team, the first in a number of generative AI tools it plans to introduce for product development across the business.

The 100,000 lines of code were produced over four months and amounted to 12 per cent of what the company described as the tedious, repetitive and time-consuming work done by its engineers on the platform.

BT noted a “comprehensive set” of protections were in place to ensure “transparency, accountability, intellectual property compliance and data privacy are prioritised” with the system.

Chief data and AI officer Deepika Adusumilli said: “The adoption of generative AI solutions on this scale is not just a major milestone for BT Group, but for industry as a whole.”

“It will equip our colleagues for a world of work that is transforming overnight, in turn delivering solutions for our customers quicker than ever before. Implementing coding assistance is step one in a wider enablement move for our digital colleagues in AI-supported product lifecycle management.”