General Motors is going all-in on AI-assisted software development. The automaker says it achieved a 300% increase in merged pull requests after retooling its AI agent software, a metric that signals dramatically more code is being reviewed, approved, and integrated into production systems.
For the non-engineers in the room: a “merged pull request” is what happens when a developer’s proposed code change gets approved and folded into the main codebase. A 300% jump means GM’s teams are shipping four times the volume of completed code contributions they were before.
GM’s AI coding machine
During the company’s Q1 2026 earnings call, CEO Mary Barra disclosed that nearly 90% of the code produced by GM’s autonomy team is now generated using AI tools.
GM has also invested heavily in automated testing infrastructure. The company employs AI-driven testing labs that simulate millions of user interactions on vehicle interfaces, helping validate software quality and safety before updates ever reach a customer’s car.
