PR Review Time Is Up 441% — The Real Cost of AI-Accelerated Development

The Numbers Don't Lie The AI Engineering Report 2026 analyzed telemetry from 22,000 developers across more than 4,000 teams. The headline metrics look impressive: epics completed per developer are up 66%, task throughput is up 34%, and PR merge rates are climbing. But dig one layer deeper and the picture shifts dramatically. Median time in PR review is up 441%. Average time spent in code review is up nearly 200%. Pull request sizes have grown 51%. And 31% more PRs are merging with zero review —