In announcing its innovative low-code GenAI-powered next-gen app development platform, OutSystems also understands speed is nothing without avoiding technical debt

In the world of application development, here is a case study of what can be achieved with the right grasp of digitalization principles and vision.

Founded in 2001, OutSystems is in the business of “transforming how companies innovate through software”. The firm offers a platform that helps clients to develop, deploy, and maintain mission-critical applications by unifying and automating the entire software lifecycle. The philosophy today is to leverage generative AI (GenAI) to deliver software instantaneously, adapt faster to changing requirements, and reduce technical debt by building on a future-proof platform.

On 16 Oct, the firm announced an innovation it claims to be the industry’s “first full software development lifecycle (SDLC) digital worker, enabling app generation, delivery, and monitoring — all powered by low-code and GenAI. The innovation is now in early-access testing, and is expected to be available in early 2025.

According to a Forrester analyst, the classical SDLC assumes that ideation, analysis, design, and development tasks are, and should be, performed by separate specialized roles and steps: but AI can and will combine these tasks into “a frictionless creative act”. This best characterizes OutSystem’s new offering, which allows development teams to:

  • Generate fully functional, scalable applications in a matter of minutes. Users simply describe the app they need or their vision, and the platform will generate an initial version with front-end functionality, data models, and embedded business logic
  • Iterate and evolve applications effortlessly using AI-powered suggestions, enabling continuous improvement and rapid iteration in a Shift-Left approach
  • Embed AI agents within apps without any coding, to add advanced capabilities such as natural language understanding to humanize digital interactions.
  • Validate and maintain applications through AI-powered code reviews, ensuring all applications meet the highest possible standards for development, security, performance, architecture and long-term maintainability

Validate and maintain applications through AI-powered code reviews, ensuring all applications meet the highest possible standards for development, security, performance, architecture and long-term maintainability