McKinsey's February 2026 study of 150 enterprises reported AI coding tools cut routine task time by 46% on average. In the same period, METR ran a controlled experiment with 16 senior open-source developers across 246 issues — the AI-using group was actually 19% slower .

Both measurements are honest. Both numbers are real. So what should your team expect when adopting a new tool?

The answer: "the average itself is meaningless." Two teams using the same Cursor — one gets 60% faster, the other gets 10% slower. The difference isn't the tool. It's the workflow .

This article breaks down five concrete workflow patterns that push you past the 46% average.

📊 Measure Your Baseline First

Before applying the five patterns, you need a baseline to compare against. Track four things over one week.…