stackoverflow.ai

stackoverflow.ai is an AI-powered search and discovery tool designed to modernize the Stack Overflow experience by helping developers get answers instantly, while helping them learn along the way and providing a path into the community.

Last updated June 25, 2025
Product

Stack Overflow is evolving, and the internet is evolving. The way developers and technologists find information and learn online is not the same as it was a few years ago. Their expectations and behaviours have evolved since AI tools and products were made available. While core Q&A will always be a critical resource, we're working on making Stack Overflow the fastest way for developers to find exactly what they need and also learn, share, and collaborate in this new age of technology (source). One concept we’re exploring is AI-powered search and discovery outside of Stack Overflow’s traditional question-and-answer format.

Yes, we’ve tried something similar before, so what’s different this time? Unlike past concepts that were RAG-based and only surfaced answers from Stack Overflow; this is instead a model-agnostic LLM, trained on knowledge from the broader web and our community’s public platform, with related content from Stack Overflow. We took past learnings, feedback, and research to build a different path forward.

We’ve launched a beta experiment on stackoverfow.ai, a new AI-powered search and discovery tool, built separate from the public platform. In this phase of testing we're understanding functionality of the newly added features and collecting feedback to iterate on the interface and user experience. If you’re a developer visiting Stack Overflow or the Stack Exchange Network, you will see a link on the left navigation of the site to try it out.

Why build it?

  • A new, more welcoming way to get started on Stack Overflow and support different methods of learning. The tool can help developers get unblocked instantly with answers to their technical problems while helping them learn along the way.
  • Engage in a user-friendly interface with conversational search and discovery.
  • Although it provides the familiar, natural language experience that anyone who has interacted with LLM chatbots would expect, it’s enriched with clear connections to trusted and verified Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange Network knowledge.
  • Share code snippets and troubleshooting tactics to get more nuanced, contextual answers.

Feature set (current)

  • Designed for learning - LLM responses don’t just provide an answer, the tool is designed to guide, educate, and teach through its responses so that the developer can learn at the same time.
  • Related content - Q&A surfaced from Stack Overflow and the Stack Exchange Network, displayed within the interface, is human-authored content that serves as an entry point into the community and can help the user validate the AI answers. Dive deeper into topics and real-world scenarios.
  • Post a question to the community - If developers are still not getting the solutions they need, the interface has a convenient path to bring their question to the Stack Overflow community.
  • Import chat history - Developers can import their chat history from other AI tools to pick up right where they left off and get unstuck on stackoverflow.ai

About Labs

Since 2008 Stack Overflow has pioneered open source conversations in the technology community, helping us become the most visited, most trusted destination for developers in the world. In 2017, we unleashed the same productivity gains inside companies with Stack Overflow for Teams.

Knowledge sharing between peers and experts is fundamental to software development ‒ you can see it happening in Slack, in meetings, or quick hangs. Advances in technology, like GenAI, puts everyone in learning mode and knowledge sharing is at the core of that experience.

Stack Overflow for Teams sits at the very intersection of curiosity and innovation, a place to ask & answer your peers’ questions, learn from other experts within the company, and keep up with ‒ or be the driver of ‒ all new developments.

Our guiding principles

Find new ways to give technologists more time to create amazing things.
Accuracy is fundamental. That comes from attributed, peer-reviewed sources that provide transparency.
The coding field should be accessible to all, including beginners to advanced users.
Humans should always be included in the application of any new technology.

With these in mind, starting over the next few months, we will be sharing our ideas, opinions, designs, research and product ideas which combine emerging technologies with our platforms and services.