A recent survey by Azul Systems has shed light on the state of Java in the industry, revealing that half of organizations that use or deploy Java-based applications and infrastructure also use Java to code AI functionality. The Azul 2025 State of Java report, which surveyed 2,039 Java professionals across six continents, found that Java leads Python and JavaScript in AI development within Java shops.

The report highlights the growing importance of AI in Java development, with 50% of organizations using Java for coding AI functionality, followed by JavaScript at 44%, and Python at 41%. This trend is driven by Java developers actively leveraging AI to drive innovation, enhance application functionality, and deliver significant business value.

The survey also explored the impact of Oracle's pricing model on Java adoption. Two years after Oracle announced its employee-based Java pricing and licensing, concern over the model remains high, with 88% of organizations considering migrating away from Oracle to another Java distribution/provider. This suggests that Oracle's pricing strategy may be driving users towards alternative Java providers.

In the cloud realm, the report found that nearly two-thirds of organizations running Java workloads in the cloud said Java accounts for more than 50% of cloud compute costs. Moreover, 71% of these organizations reported having more than 20% unused, but purchased, cloud capacity. To address these costs, organizations are adopting strategies such as implementing new internal rules for managing cloud instances, adopting finops practices, upgrading to more efficient compute instances and processors, and leveraging high-performance Java Development Kits (JDKs).

The survey also delved into devops productivity, finding that dead or unused code affects devops productivity somewhat or to a great extent for 62% of participants. Additionally, 33% of respondents reported that 51% or more of their devops team's time is wasted addressing false positives from Java-related security vulnerabilities.

Other key findings from the report include the popularity of Groovy as the most widely used Java-based language, with 36% of respondents, followed by Scala, Kotlin, and traditional Java. The report also found that Java 17 is the most commonly used Java version for production applications, and Spring Boot is the most widely used microservices framework for Java-based applications.

The Azul 2025 State of Java report provides valuable insights into the current state of Java adoption, AI development, and cloud costs. As Java continues to play a critical role in driving innovation and business value, understanding these trends is essential for organizations looking to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.