Over the years, low-code and no-code platforms, which reduce the burden on professional developers to make certain apps, have aged drastically. Large businesses have become increasingly exploring resources to accelerate app development, but will that take on new, more intensive needs such as AI app development in a big way?
Gartner predicts that by 2025, approximately 70% of new apps developed by businesses will use low-code or no-code resources. By 2020, less than 25% of new apps will be developed through such means in enterprises. In addition, Gartner also projects that 75% of large businesses by 2025 will use at least four low-code tools for IT app and citizen development.
Many low-code and no-code platforms are competing to be the option for businesses to streamline development and deployment. There is Sway AI along with its no-code AI platform for AI and machine learning application deployment. Many startups are emerging in this market, including DuploCloud, which raised $ 15 million in February in a series A round for its low-code/no-code offering in infrastructure automation.
Others include TrueSource, which raised a $ 1.1 million pre-seed round for its code-free platform that can turn complex datasets into a lucrative app. Other low-code/no-code platform providers include Cyclr, Mendix, and Hyland whose list continues to grow.
“We’re in the forefront of low code adoption,” said Jason Wong, prominent vice president of research at Gartner. He said Gartner is looking at how AI can factor in the low-code/no-code equation, through generative AI to potentially help create applications, conduct testing and improve the quality of applications. “This is where the next wave of low code will make more progress,” Wong said.
AI in Low Code is still in its Early Stage
Such implementation of AI in low -cost code is still early, he says, even as large vendors like Microsoft are investing heavily in this arena. “There are products out there that use AI to evaluate all the different applications built on one platform, anonymizing data models and UI elements from customers,” Wong said. That can be used to provide advice to organizations on developing applications and using their data more effectively.
Developing applications through traditional methods often requires special skills. These days, organizations face talent and resource barriers in IT, software engineering, and digital business units but additional circumstances may play a role in that widespread embrace. “From a business perspective, from a business perspective the pandemic is a rising tide that has lifted all low-code boats,” Wong said.
The need to solve some of the problems that arose in the pandemic pushed this trend, he says. This includes IT teams that recognize the need to act faster and faster than traditional coding techniques, Wong said. For example, he says, a business can use a low-code platform to develop apps with full awareness that the apps will require modification or replacement within a few years. The alternative of not deploying could mean the business may not survive.
“Now, it’s not just a low -code tool within organizations,” Wong said. “There are a lot of tools with low code.” Large software providers like Salesforce, Microsoft, ServiceNow, Oracle, and SAP have some tools with low code, he says. Along with products from sources like Mendix and Unqork, Wong said there are so many tools that are inherently low code.
Low Code Five Years Ago
In the early days of low code, just four or five years ago, such platforms were seen as a tactical or experimental option for creating new apps, he says. “Instead of buying another SaaS application, [organizations] will test and build it. ”It could be for prototyping purposes to eventually code the app on AWS, Azure, or the Google Cloud Platform, Wong said.
“Now low code is used for modernization and replatforming,” he said. For example, if an organization needs to rewrite components of a monolithic legacy application to migrate to the cloud, he said platforms such as OutSystems, Mendix, or Appian can be used. “Many of these low-code platforms have migrated to the cloud or, in fact, cloud-native,” Wong said. “They can run in containers, create and support serverless functions, and have DevOps.”
The greater emphasis on low code and no code in the C-suite and beyond seems to be part of a broader shift in how organizations address their needs. In Gartner’s 2022 Board of Directors Survey, 40% of boards indicated they approved more technology budgets to go to business lines for digital initiatives, Wong said. “Business units need more agility,” he said. “Low code is one of the main ways business units implement their applications, automation, data models, algorithms – everything they need to solve their business problems.”
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