UC Irvine

As GenAI becomes embedded in developer toolchains and practices, and routine code is increasingly generated, human creativity will be increasingly important for generating competitive advantage. This paper uses the McLuhan tetrad alongside scenarios of how GenAI may disrupt software development more broadly, to identify potential impacts GenAI may have on creativity within software development. The impacts are discussed along with a future research agenda comprising five connected themes that consider how individual capabilities, team capabilities, the product, unintended consequences, and society. can be affected.