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Software Distribution Platform Harness announced the launch of AIDA (AI Development Assistant), a generative AI assistant to streamline software development lifecycle (SDLC) workflows. According to the company, unlike traditional AI applications that focus primarily on code development, AIDA addresses the entire SDLC, including code bug fixes, security vulnerabilities, and cloud cost governance.
“Our approach ensures that developers have AI-powered assistance at every stage of the SDLC, which we believe is a necessary approach to AI in software delivery to reap the full potential benefits,” he told VentureBeat Harish Doddala, vice president of product management at Harness.
Harness says its generative AI tool can improve the productivity of software engineering teams by 30-50%.
AIDA also offers automatic identification and explanation of security vulnerabilities, drawing on extensive training with publicly available data such as Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) and Common Weakness Enumerations (CWE).
Using models trained on security best practices and expert knowledge, AI can generate explanations for security vulnerabilities and suggest remediations, thereby minimizing the time and effort required to remediate.
Harness said this feature will help developers improve application security and maintain code integrity throughout the SDLC. Any further customization based on specific code requirements will align with the company’s privacy and security policies.
The company said the AI solution can be integrated with all Harness platform workflows and features, including continuous integration (CI), continuous implementation (CD), cloud cost management, and flags of features.
Streamlining software development through generative AI
Doddala said that offering developers auto-discovery and root-cause insights allows them to quickly find and fix problems. This eliminates the need for manual log analysis.
AIDA analyzes log files, correlates error messages with known problems, and suggests fixes to troubleshoot and resolve deployment errors. It also uses generative AI to automatically identify security vulnerabilities and generate code fixes.
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“What sets our solution apart is its extensive training on known vulnerabilities and weaknesses, which enables it to offer targeted and accurate suggestions for remediation,” said Doddala. “This distinguishes AIDA from traditional security testing tools by providing developers with actionable recommendations specific to their code base and improving the overall security of the software.”
The AI tool, the company says, also helps developers manage cloud resources using natural language, allowing them to define policies to govern resource management and cost control without resorting to manual programming.
Doddala said the company uses a hybrid approach to ensure data privacy and security and is exploring using domain-specific data to train models.
“We do not send proprietary customer data without explicit customer consent and ensure that appropriate security protocols and security encryption standards are followed. As for the LLMs themselves, we’re looking to use permissive license-trained data pre-trained with domain-specific data,” he added. “Harness leverages a combination of cloud APIs and our LLMs.”
What is the future of Harness?
Doddala said the initial release of AIDA marks only the beginning of its capabilities. In the coming months, AIDA will introduce additional AI capabilities, such as automated code reviews, AI-assisted creation of CI/CD pipelines, and AI-supported chaos engineering experiments.
Harness’s long-term vision for AI involves continuing innovation in generative AI and integrating it into the fabric of software delivery.
“As Generative AI evolves, it will continue to reshape the software development landscape, enabling faster, more efficient and higher quality software delivery,” said Doddala. “We expect offerings like AIDA to play a key role in shaping the future of AI-powered software development and equipping developers with these transformational capabilities.”
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