Key takeaways
- The low-code development platform market is projected to grow significantly, driven by digital disruptions and increased demand for development tools.
- Software developers are increasingly adopting low-code/no-code tools, recognising their potential to enhance productivity without replacing traditional coding skills.
- A notable portion of low-code developers are full-time professionals, indicating a shift in how developers are defined in the digital landscape.
- Despite their growing popularity, low-code/no-code platforms still require some coding expertise, limiting their functionality for users without technical backgrounds.
The low-code development platform market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 25.26% from 2022-2027 to reach a cap of USD 64.56 billion by 2026, according to Expert Market Research. “While low-code application development is not new, a confluence of digital disruptions, hyperautomation and the rise of composable business has led to an influx of tools and rising demand,” said Fabrizio Biscotti, research vice president, Gartner.
Gartner has projected low-code application platforms (LCAP) will be the largest component of the low-code development technology market through 2022.
Below we look at the emerging trends in no-code/low-code development:
No-code for developers
Yes, marketers and analysts will cash in on the no-code/low-code technology, but experts suggest that the biggest DevOps trend for 2022 will have software developers using low-code/no-code tools. The majority of developers think such tools will help save time, reduce overload, enhance productivity, and not render them obsolete.
According to a report by IDC, 40% of low-code developers are full-time developers, whereas 33% are part-time developers. To wit, developers are no longer defined by their proficiency in coding but by their ability to build digital solutions.
That said, the low-code/no-code platforms are still at the nascent stage. Even the most popular tools require significant API expertise and JavaScript experience. Currently, the products that do not require any coding are limited in functionality.
Retail play
While Amazon and Flipkart are the major ones, the competition in Indian e-commerce is stiffening. For Indian retailers, no-code/low-code is the fastest way to roll out direct-to-consumer digital initiatives to improve customer experience and get loyal customers.
India is predicted to surpass the US to become the second-largest e-commerce market by 2034. The no-code/low-code platforms power the e-commerce growth strategy and give retailers and brands access to enterprise-grade infrastructure that allows merchandising and planning; distributed storefront management; customer reviews, retention, and loyalty; sale, offer, and discount automation; and customer support automation.
Solutions
Before launching Amazon Sagemaker Canvas, AWS rolled out two no-code/low-code services: Amazon Honeycode, a visual web and mobile application builder; and Amplify Studio, a visual development service for application stacks. The Amazon Sagemaker Canvas is an ML service for any engineer or business user to build ML predictions via point-and-click options and automatically combine their data and create individual or batch predictions.
Amazon wants to expand the no-code/low-code portfolio as the demand for cloud-focused skills is too high and believes the solution will address the current skill-gap problems. The company also wanted to tap into the demographic of non-technical users with no-code/low-code.
SAP also jumped on the no-code/low-code train. Its solution allows customers to develop apps and adjust the SAP processes through drag-and-drop options. They also plan to automate workflows for controlling and finance departments. For their no-code development environment, the company took over AppGyver, a no-code platform, and for low-code, SAP has launched the Business Application Studio.
Google, too, has a no-code AI solution called AutoML. The solution presumed some ML knowledge on the part of the developer. AutoML is a feature-rich suite of AI products that enables users to train high-quality ML models for business use cases.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has a free desktop program called Lobe to build customised AI models, sans coding. Available for Windows and Mac, Lobe is best suited for image classification.
Akkio is an end-to-end no-code free AI platform designed for sales, marketing, and financial activities. The platform claims it can help turn data into live AI predictions in less than 10 minutes without writing code or hiring a data expert.
