Mendix introduces the first AI-assisted low code development platform

Mendix has introduced Mendix Assist, the first AI-assisted development built into a low code application development platform. Based upon ML analysis of over 5 million anonymized application flows built with Mendix across 15 industries, Mendix Assist provides 90% accuracy on next-step suggestions and expert quality, performance and maintenance recommendations.  Enterprises can leverage Mendix Assist to boost developer productivity, mentor new developers, and decrease the cost and time impact of defects by 100x.   

 

According to Gartner, “to keep pace with the demands of digital transformation initiatives, application development teams will augment their efforts with AI "co-developers" to streamline programming efforts.” Gartner predicts that “by 2022, at least 40% of new application development projects will have virtual AI co-developers on their team.” ⁽¹⁾.

Enterprises will benefit from Mendix Assist in three main ways:

 

·         Hands-on mentoring for new developers with AI-assisted next-step-suggestions to teach them how to build apps in real time. Mendix Assist is the equivalent of having a world-class coach looking over their shoulder to dramatically accelerate the learning curve without the added cost of additional training resources.  

 

·         Increased developer productivity and capacity with AI-assisted development including ‘complete the thought’ smart suggestions for application logic flows.  This development support provides the benefits of “pair programming” without needing two expensive resources on the task.      

 

·         Decreased time and cost impact of functional and non-functional defects by preventing them before they happen.  By providing consistency checks and quality oversight including security configuration consistency, software maintainability and application scalability, Mendix Assist spots issues that normal analysis wouldn’t find as well as provide actionable feedback directly to the developer at time of creation.  

 

Mendix Assist continues to get smarter over time via learning algorithms that expand the AI knowledge base, incorporating insights from all applications being built on Mendix and tailoring the assistance to an organization’s business processes and development style.    

 

“With a one percent unemployment rate for software developers, the talent shortage is not forecasted to improve and development managers have been lacking the means to dramatically improve team productivity. They have also been unable to tap into the nearly 10-times as many non-technical developers available, and teaching and enabling them to build applications is key to jumping on the digital transformation train,” said Johan den Haan, CTO, Mendix.  “Mendix Assist is like training wheels for first-time developers and drive-assist for more seasoned developers.” 

“The cost of fixing a software bug grows 100x from development to release," said Desiree Fraser, Practice Manager Custom Software Development, Capgemini.  "Preventing issues at time of development dramatically reduces the time and cost of re-work and gives us the opportunity to focus even more on business value and speed up digital transformation for our customers. We are excited to see that we can leverage this new technology integrated into Mendix's low code development platform.”