Our third annual open source community survey took the pulse of the open source community, gathering insights from hundreds of contributors worldwide to identify trends, concerns, and opportunities in the open source ecosystem.
“Developer value starts with solving real challenges to enable faster innovation and time to value,” said Intel VP and GM Melissa Evers. “We are so thankful for the breadth of voices in this years’ survey helping us live into the value we aspire to create on behalf of the community and our technologies.”
The survey included 334 respondents, providing a snapshot of how open source is evolving. The findings reveal some fascinating insights about the dynamics within the community, and the most urgent challenges it’s facing.
Refactoring the Glass Ceiling: More Women in Open Source
One of the biggest shifts in this year’s data is the changing profile of contributors. 29% of respondents identified as female, a welcome increase from last year’s 8%. Given the reputation that open source has for being something of a boys’ club, with female representation lower than the broader tech industry, this is an encouraging sign indeed.
India also saw a dramatic increase in participation, now representing 20% of respondents, four times more than in 2023. These shifts suggest a broader and more diverse engagement in open source, although there is still room to foster inclusivity and accessibility.
This year, diversity is up, both in terms of gender and geography. The results show a notable increase in female involvement, as well as contributions from countries outside the U.S., especially India
Industries are also evolving within open source. While technology remains the dominant sector, there was a surge in respondents from the automotive industry, growing from 2% last year to 17% this year. This shift aligns with the increasing role of open source in autonomous driving, in-vehicle software, and AI-driven automotive applications.
Still Burned Out, But It’s Getting Better
There’s more good news when it comes to the obstacles open source contributors face. Maintainer burnout, which was the top concern last year, dropped all the way down to fifth place. This is a clear improvement, but it remains a critical issue that calls for continued attention and support from organizations and the community.
This year’s top concern turned out to be documentation and onboarding, cited by 35% of respondents. The community will need to keep an eye on this one, because clear and accessible documentation is crucial to welcoming new contributors and sustaining projects long-term, a topic that Intel Open Source Security Evangelist Katherine Druckman discussed in depth on a recent episode of her Open at Intel podcast. Following closely behind these challenges are technical debt (33%) and security and vulnerability management (29%).
Burnout is happening a little less often. But new challenges have taken its place. Our survey shows that documentation and onboarding especially are the biggest obstacles to progress in open source.
Open Source Engagement: More Hands on Deck, More Ways to Learn
Despite these challenges, the majority of respondents (90%) are still rolling up their sleeves and engaging with projects. We were happy to see that 43% actually reported spending more time contributing compared to previous years. At the same time, 34% noted they are spending less time, which could hint at resource constraints or shifting priorities.
When it comes to learning about open source, the top choices are attending in-person events (34%). Notably, the majority of respondents named KubeCon their top event, which Intel sponsored in 2024 and is sponsoring again this year. If you’re heading to KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe in London this April, we look forward to seeing you there! We’ll have a booth featuring expert speakers, plenty of swag, and live interviews recorded on-site with our Open at Intel host, Katherine Druckman.
Next on the list came reading blog posts (30%) and exploring GitHub (29%). We take this as a sign of healthy diversity. Whatever the open source community looks like in the future, it will probably have to include a mix of digital and real-world community spaces to speed up knowledge sharing and get people collaborating in a format they prefer.
AI Takes the Repo. But Can It Scale?
In many ways, AI was the elephant in the room for this year’s survey. Over 60% of respondents now actively use open source AI tools, a sharp rise from 39% last year. The most common AI use cases include natural language processing (51%), automation (39%), and machine learning model development (33%). With AI-powered tools becoming more embedded in everyday workflows, the intersection of AI and open source is poised to expand even further in the coming years.
But AI implementation isn’t always easy. Scalability and performance challenges (37%) and a shortage of AI talent (37%) were cited as the top barriers organizations face in adopting AI solutions. This echoes the industry at large: upskilling and retraining employees is becoming an urgent priority as the AI skills gap shows no sign of narrowing just yet.
Other concerns, such as regulatory and compliance issues (34%) and integration difficulties (33%), further highlight the complexities of bringing AI into production environments.
In April 2024, Intel, in collaboration with industry partners, launched the Open Platform for Enterprise AI (OPEA) and contributed it to the LF AI & Data Foundation with the mission of addressing many of the top challenges enterprises face in implementing AI solutions. OPEA aims to create an open, multi-provider platform that facilitates the development of robust and composable GenAI applications, addressing the fragmentation in AI tools and techniques. The initiative seeks to standardize components such as frameworks, architecture blueprints, and reference solutions to promote performance, interoperability, trustworthiness, and enterprise-grade readiness in AI systems.
Respondents placed scalability and talent at the top of the list of barriers to AI implementation. A majority are actively using AI tools anyway, but progress is needed to support adoption.
Looking Ahead: The Future of Open Source
The 2024 Intel Open Source Community Survey highlights both the resilience and evolution of the open source ecosystem. AI is becoming a fundamental part of open source workflows, engagement remains strong despite shifting priorities, and documentation and technical debt continue to be pressing challenges. As open source continues to shape the future of technology, Intel remains committed to listening, learning, and contributing to this dynamic community. Let’s continue building together.