Bito, a B2B startup based in Menlo Park, has introduced a new AI coding assistant called Bito AI. With over 100,000 users, Bito positions itself as a versatile tool for software developers, often referred to as the “Swiss Army knife of capabilities.” The coding assistant harnesses the power of OpenAI’s renowned ChatGPT large language model (LLM).
One notable feature of Bito AI is its ability to learn from a user’s own codebase. However, it prioritizes data security and privacy by storing all user information on their own devices. The assistant only forwards natural language queries to ChatGPT 2.5 and ChatGPT 4, ensuring that sensitive code remains protected.
In conjunction with the launch of Bito AI, the company has also announced securing $3.2 million in new funding. This funding will likely aid Bito in further enhancing its AI coding assistant and expanding its user base.
How Bito AI Works
The new tool works by allowing developers to simply ask Bito AI to complete a software development task in one of 25 supported languages — for example, “write a Java function to authenticate a user and provide them a welcome message” — and returns results in 50 programming languages.
With Bito’s AI assistant, developers can generate unit tests, explain their code, add comments to their functions, improve code performance, check for known security issues, and gain insight into technical concepts, among other features.
“Any developer at any-sized company can use Bito,” said Goel. He added that developers from 162 countries were among Bito’s sign-ups so far, and that 32% of the Fortune 100 companies were represented among its users, though the userbase skewed primarily toward startups. Goel also said that Bito AI is GDPR complaint.
Ultimately, the company aims to add other leading LLMs including Anthropic’s Claude to Bito AI.
As for why a developer would choose to use Bito AI over using the existing web interface of leading LLMs, Amar Goel, CEO and co-founder of Bito, told VentureBeat in a phone call that Bito AI, and the entire Bito platform, plugs directly into a developer’s existing coding environment and workspace, meaning they would not have to toggle back and forth to a web page to get results. It also highlights, and allows them to approve or decline, suggested code snippets and changes.
Currently in its Alpha release, Bito AI is free to use and has been designed to work seamlessly with Visual Studio Code, JetBrains IDEs, and the CLI.
Developers using Bito have found it significantly enhances productivity. The AI-powered assistant can generate source code from natural language prompts, answer queries, and give feedback on existing code in any language. According to the company, developers use the platform almost 200 times per month and report a 31% increase in productivity, thanks to the time saved on routine tasks.
