Where Are Low- and No-Code Heading? Let’s Discuss the Future

In recent years, low-code solutions have emerged as innovative tools to expand programming accessibility to a broader range of users and address development gaps within organizations.

The adoption of these technologies is steadily increasing, with Gartner projecting that the low-code development market will grow by 20% to reach a total value of $26.9 billion in 2023. 

Gartner also mentioned that adopting low-code technologies would be driven by the increasing number of business technologists and the growing implementation of enterprise-wide hyper automation and composable business initiatives. These factors are expected to be pivotal in accelerating the adoption of low-code technologies through 2026.

Given the increase in demand for low and no-code technologies, the market is expected to witness many changes. Here are the top seven low and no-code predictions of 2023 and beyond.

7 Low and No-Code Predictions for 2023 and Beyond

Here is what industry experts and research firms think is the future of low and no-code:

1. Democratized Programming With CADPs

In the last decade, the emergence of "citizen developers," or non-technical business users, has led to the creation or improvement of business applications without the involvement of IT professionals.

In fact, the fastest-growing segment in the low-code market is projected to be Citizen Automation Development Platforms (CADPs), with a forecasted growth rate of 30.2% in 2023. CADPs are commonly used to automate workflows, create web-based forms, integrate data and content across multiple SaaS applications, and generate reports and visualizations.

For example, an eCommerce company can now modify its portal without relying on its IT staff, resulting in a reduction in the total cost of ownership.

As a result, the low-code market is rapidly expanding, with Gartner's recent study predicting that approximately 65% of application development will utilize low-code technologies by 2024.

2. Low-Code Powered SaaS Solutions

In the past, business teams utilizing Slack could only streamline workflows using the applications available in the App Directory. If they required additional functionality, they would either need coding experience to develop a solution or have to approach their IT teams or external vendors, resulting in additional expenses.

However, established SaaS platforms such as Slack, Salesforce, and Teams are now integrating low-code capabilities to allow users to create custom applications and workflows that can enhance performance without requiring coding knowledge.

For example, Slack's Workflow Builder enables users to develop custom workflows and applications, while Salesforce's Lightning platform offers low-code tools that have resulted in an ROI improvement of over 500% for Salesforce users in just five years.

As we look ahead to 2023, we can expect to see more SaaS platforms adopting a low-code approach or potentially being surpassed by competitors who do so.

3. Offset Developer Shortage

With the growing demand for software applications, there is a significant shortage of experienced developers, which has resulted in longer development cycles and higher costs for organizations. 

However, the rise of low and no-code platforms is blurring the differences between citizen developers and professional developers. These solutions help address chronic resource shortages by enabling citizen developers to build applications, accelerating the development of low-complexity intelligent automation and business process workflows, and increasing developer velocity.

Low and no-code platforms allow users to leverage pre-built components and templates to quickly create applications without requiring extensive coding knowledge. This allows organizations to develop applications more quickly, with less need for professional developers.

Moreover, these solutions can help organizations respond to changing market needs more quickly, enabling them to stay ahead of their competition. As the demand for software applications continues to grow, low and no-code platforms are expected to play an increasingly critical role in enabling organizations to meet their business needs without relying solely on a limited pool of experienced developers.

4. Simplified Data Analytics

In 2023, data analysis is a critical component for the success of any organization. However, while many companies strive to be data-driven, it can be a challenging goal to achieve due to the large volumes of unstructured data that they generate.

Recent statistics suggest that up to 80-90% of an organization's data, which is in the form of text, video, social media data, and application logs, is unstructured, making it difficult to analyze and utilize.

Creating advanced AI-ML models is also a complex task that involves numerous time-consuming activities, including data collection, cleansing, and model training. Fortunately, low-code platforms can help streamline data collection, preparation, training, testing, and analysis.

Low-code platforms can integrate using APIs to gather data from various sources, thereby enhancing the quality of AI-ML algorithms. They also offer low-code-driven automation to cleanse data and make it suitable for training models. Additionally, data scientists can use low-code libraries to train and deploy their solutions, and low-code platforms provide modules to help users generate advanced visualizations of their data.

Overall, low-code platforms provide drag-and-drop capabilities that simplify tedious processes for data engineers and democratize AI for business users. As a result, low-code platforms are poised to transform the way organizations analyze and utilize their data to drive business success.

5. Artificial Low and No-Code Intelligence

The combination of AI and low-code technology is expected to democratize low-code and empower every employee, regardless of technical expertise, to leverage its capabilities.

This is likely to bring about a paradigm shift in software development, with low-code tools enabling non-technical staff to code. According to IDC, around 750 million new applications will be developed between 2023 and 2025, necessitating a change.

As machine learning models advance, low-code technology is poised to leverage these advancements. This transition represents the next phase of low-code development, allowing users to express their ideas in simple terms, with AI doing the rest, thereby making AI accessible to all employees.

For instance, tools like ChatGPT have become mainstream tools, not just for content creators but also for scientific research. One of their applications is generating MATLAB code, including functions and unit tests, which can be easily imported into IDEs. Nevertheless, it's crucial to note that the code generated by ChatGPT must be thoroughly reviewed and validated by engineers and scientists to ensure it's precision and reliability.

6. Onboarding of Traditional Software Development Tools

There is a growing trend of integrating no and low-code platforms with conventional software development environments, such as IDEs and version control systems. These platforms are often used to quickly create custom solutions, especially by organizations lacking in-house technical expertise.

However, by incorporating these platforms into traditional software development tools, the development process can become more collaborative and flexible. For instance, a developer might use a low-code platform to swiftly prototype a new feature and then leverage traditional tools to refine and perfect the final product.

This integration of low-code and no-code platforms with traditional software development tools can facilitate more effective collaboration among developers with varying skill levels. As more organizations embrace these platforms, it is likely that we will see an even wider range of integration options and tools becoming available.

7. Utilization for Prototyping and MVPs

Low and no-code platforms can be invaluable resources for organizations looking to swiftly create prototypes and minimum-viable products for the purpose of testing and validation. These platforms offer a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface that enables non-technical users to produce functional prototypes and MVPs without extensive programming knowledge.

By utilizing low and no-code platforms for prototyping and MVP development, businesses can expedite the validation process and gather feedback more efficiently, thereby reducing the time and resources required to bring a new product or service to market. This approach can also prove effective for testing the feasibility of a project before committing significant resources to complete development.

8. Low-Code Will Kill RPA

The growth of the RPA market is plateauing as its limitations become more apparent to businesses. Companies require more advanced solutions as the need for enterprise-wide automation or transformational automation becomes increasingly crucial.

Initially marketed as an all-in-one solution for automating essential parts of an organization, RPA is now revealing its true nature. RPA merely scratches the surface of streamlining operations and automating repetitive manual tasks that can be error-prone and prevent employees from focusing on more valuable work. It is essentially a temporary fix that addresses a broken process.

On the other hand, low code represents a strategic approach to optimize and transform critical business processes, driving hyper-automation and innovation across the entire enterprise ecosystem.

In 2023, businesses will realize the importance of purpose-built, enterprise-grade tools that are designed to continually optimize and automate operations, thereby prompting them to stop neglecting this fundamental principle of enterprise strategy.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, low and no-code will have a positive impact on digital transformation by enhancing digitalization success and encouraging greater employee participation.

Nevertheless, it would be inaccurate to claim that low and no-code is the sole future of software development. While low and no-code provide numerous advantages for businesses, it is unlikely to supplant all software development or entirely eliminate the need for skilled developers.

This is primarily due to its limitations in terms of customizability, security, and scalability. As of this time, low and no-code simply cannot deliver everything that traditional app and software development can provide.