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AI Coding Tools Glossary

Augmentation vs automation

Anthropic's classification of AI use: augmentation keeps the human in the loop (learning, iterating), automation has the AI complete the task.

In Anthropic's Economic Index analysis of 500,000 coding conversations, Claude Code sessions were 79% automation versus 49% for Claude.ai chat. Automation subdivides into directive (hand over the task) and feedback loop (AI works, human supplies test results or errors). The mix is a leading indicator of how far a team has moved from assistant to agent workflows.

Source: AI's impact on software development — Anthropic Economic Index

See the numbers behind this term: AI Coding Tools Statistics 2026.