Authoring applications quickly with low-code platforms may soon ‘murder‘ the need for traditional programming.
Applications are now of greater significance to consumers than ever. They have fundamentally changed the way we organize and optimize our daily routines, from shopping, food delivery to ride-hailing and banking. The experience is only going to get faster and more intuitive as consumers demand a seamless user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) when it comes to applications they utilize.
An infobrief by IDC stated that by 2024, a new class of developers that build applications without writing code will account for 20% of all developers in the Asia-Pacific region. These developers will accelerate digital transformation across industries—with the emphasis on market disruption and continuous innovation. Low-code provides them with the potential to bridge silos, streamline processes, facilitate team collaboration, and focus on core transformation efforts for an improved user experience.
Here are five areas where application development space in the Asia-Pacific will flourish:
#1: Innovation at the Edge will accelerate
Organizations are looking at ways to innovate, break down silos and reduce costs: low-code helps them do all of those. To facilitate innovation, many will use low-code platforms to quickly transform ideas into prototypes, minimum viable products (MVPs), and even entire applications. Writing complex code will not be necessary.
For companies are already utilizing low-code platforms, they could empower developers of varying skills levels to realize a full range of their capabilities while accelerating the speed of development and fulfilling their custom business needs. A low-code platform could empower a citizen developer to build an application to the best of his/her abilities, and allow a seasoned developer to step in and see the process through to fruition—leading to seamless handoffs.
#2: Low-code as an enabler of essential digital transformation
As digital transformation has become the main agenda, organizations are forced to use technology strategically and leverage on digital opportunities. Organizations attempt to optimize everything, from operational efficiency to customer experiences, but there needs to be a medium in place to transform these great ideas into bottom-line benefits.
Therefore, speed of implementation is critical. With this in mind, companies should look to employ low-code platforms that offer businesses quicker turnover in application development, while offering a sense of ownership. These platforms eliminate the need for extensive coding and account for device compatibility, scalability or other time-consuming aspects of traditional development. This frees up time and resources for organizations to focus on innovation, thus enabling smoother digital transformation.
#3: AI and low-code will empower traditional and citizen developers
AI is a competitive differentiator today, even in low-code, where it can intelligently assist in the development process. It enables both traditional and citizen developers to add AI to their applications with confidence—no data science experience required. It empowers traditional developers to get quick feedback and insight into potential application issues so they can avoid performance-related problems, data-related issues and more.
For citizen developers, AI acts as a mentor by observing and providing guidance along the way. Apart from that, its capabilities give organizations the power to harness automation to create self-service portals—responding to text and voice queries, improving customer service and many more benefits.
#4: Enterprise and IT strategies will emerge
Low-code adoption is often tactical. A business unit may turn to a cheap low-code platform to solve a specific problem, but as their needs become more sophisticated, they may find that the platform has limitations.
Adoption of low-code strategies at the enterprise level will thus facilitate faster innovation while maintaining enterprise standards for quality, security and compliance. Organizations should be careful about how they implement a low-code strategy, and be aware that the safest foundation is an enterprise-grade low-code platform that is scalable and adaptable to shifting organizational requirements.
#5: More trust in low-code core and mission-critical apps
A significant number of organizations have used low-code to build various types of applications, but others hesitate to use low-code for core and mission-critical apps due to their concerns for potential factors such as scalability, workload management and its ability to support security, compliance, and transaction volume requirements.
Indeed, adopting low-code solutions can be daunting. However, organizations should be asking whether the low-code platform they plan on employing can handle the tasks at hand. Look for customer success stories that involve considerable risk, and then verify the capabilities of the platform to ensure they align with the requirements of the program.
All in all, low-code can help organizations to satisfy some programming and development needs at a quick turnaround while alleviating the heavy lifting that usually comes with coding from the ground up. This makes it low-code both efficient and effective. Such qualities make low-code especially helpful if the backlog of app development continues to grow.
