Measuring AI ROI at scale: A practical guide to GitLab Duo Analytics

This post introduces a customer-driven, open-source solution for measuring GitLab Duo ROI. It details the implementation steps using GitLab CI/CD and GraphQL APIs to collect and aggregate AI usage data (code suggestions, chat events, license utilization). Key technical contributions include configuring CI/CD variables (`ENABLE_DUO_METRICS`), defining data ingestion variables (`GROUP_PATH`, `INCLUDE_SIMPLE_FIELDS`, `ARGUMENT_FIELDS`), and setting up aggregation rules in `.gitlab/Schedule.gitlab-ci.yml` for metrics like average time to merge and Duo Chat analytics. It also outlines the specific GitLab APIs used: `aiUsageData`, `selfManagedAddOnEligibleUsers`, `aiMetrics`, and the Service Ping API.