Enterprise low-code development continues to grow in popularity as software vendors continue to unveil tool enhancements designed to help business users and non-developers build functional applications and business processes.
The help from low-code platforms (and other platforms that are integrating low-code capabilities) couldn’t come at a better time, as enterprises continue to struggle to digitize operations and dig through their application backlogs.
Consider open source digital process automation platform Bonitasoft and its recent increased support for low-code development and what the company promises to be accelerated user interface development for more customized user experiences. The platform (including a new Bonita Cloud edition) helps to enhance collaboration between professional developers and so-called citizen developers, according to the company.
Recently, low-code development platform provider OutSystems announced it is adding new artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities into its platform. The company said the enhancements provide customers the ability to help automate the creation of self-service portals, respond to text and voice queries and improve customer service.
OutSystems said citizen developers now can more easily build communication channels into their apps and better utilize virtual assistants such as Alexa, Google and Siri, as well as common chatbot platforms. The company claimed developers don’t need any specialized development skills or knowledge in data science to use these features. “These new, high-level components package everything organizations need to implement rich use cases from end to end. As a result, many more companies can easily adopt AI and machine learning to positively impact their business,” said António Alegria, OutSystems’ head of artificial intelligence.
According to the research firm Gartner, by next year, consumers will manage 85% of their relationship with enterprises without having to interact with a human. However, despite the use of AI having tripled over the past four years, two-thirds of organizations have yet to deploy AI in some form, it noted.
According to Research and Markets, the global low-code development platform market size will reach just over $27 billion by 2022, up from $4 billion in 2017 and a 44% annual growth rate.
According to the research firm, it is the increased demand in software automation and innovative applications and the ease of development of web and mobile apps that are driving enterprise demand for low-code development. “Moreover, the cloud-based deployment mode is gaining high traction in the market, as it requires less capital investment, helps decrease the operational and maintenance costs, and reduces the management’s efforts,” the research firm said.
While many analyst market predictions do fall short, as long as low-code platforms reduce costs and help organizations move forward rapidly with their digitization efforts, low-code development is here to stay and will continue to grow.
