AI and low-code combination delivers faster innovation

With essential data locked in legacy systems for many manufacturing organisations, application development that digitises operations is a valuable approach for the industry. Whether that’s improving quality control, streamlining processes, increasing customer satisfaction, or employee safety, accelerating digital transformation is high on the agenda – with 52% of manufacturing IT leaders ranking digital transformation as their leading low-code use case.

‘The Low-Code Perspective: Insights from Enterprise IT leaders’ report provides an overview of the key trends shaping the low-code market among 2000 global enterprise tech C-suite executives and senior IT decision-makers in Benelux, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US. The research highlights that:

• 99% of manufacturing organisations surveyed are using low-code as part of their development process. Low-code is now a mainstream technology. For the majority of respondents (75%), low-code improves their organisation’s ability to innovate at scale.

• 77% of respondents identify the C-suite as the driving force for low-code adoption. Low-code is seen as a strategic enterprise technology used to facilitate digital transformation and enhance operational efficiency. Long-term organisation investment means the entire C suite is now involved in low-code decision-making.

• A definitive 84% of manufacturing IT leaders surveyed say combining AI and low-code would help their organisation innovate faster. Yet, 69% have concerns regarding the governance around AI-assisted coding. Survey results indicate that IT leaders want to invest in low-code and AI, but they acknowledge that functional implementation requires upskilling for both developers and non-technical users alike.

The highlights of low-code

The research shows that low-code development brings significant benefits to the enterprise. Respondents identified productivity as a core benefit, particularly for tech teams looking to meet lofty digital transformation goals. The survey demonstrated a clear consensus that low-code increases productivity and helps organisations innovate faster at scale:

• 83% of survey respondents say that low-code improves productivity on technical teams

• 76% agree that low-code streamlines the development process

• 75% agree that low-code improves time to market

• 84% agree that combining AI and low-code helps their organisation innovate faster

• 75% agree that low-code enables development teams to innovate at scale

Low-code: A top-down decision

According to the research, low-code has become a technology the entire C-suite advocates for. Half of manufacturing organisations state the COO (50%) and the CEO (51%) are both heavily involved in decision-making surrounding low-code adoption. The manufacturing industry actually reports the highest amount of CEO involvement than the other sectors surveyed.

This makes sense - the survey clearly demonstrates that low-code is having an impact across the global enterprise. Respondents are using low-code to digitally transform (52%), improve legacy processes (48%), and reduce operational costs (43%) - these are all use cases that have an organisational impact.

77% of the respondents stated that the C Suite sees low-code as the only option for coding in the future. Organisations need to manage costs as they innovate - and low-code helps them do so. It also allows them to build better, future-proofed apps faster.

Educate and upskill for the best ROI

81% of respondents are using low-code and AI-assisted coding, but while adoption is on the rise, AI-assisted development isn’t foolproof. For a majority of technical leaders, the need for further education for both developers and non-technical users will be key:

• 69% technical leaders are concerned about the governance of AI-assisted coding

• 86% agree that more training needs to take place to ensure developers are using AI-assisted coding properly

• 82% agree that the C-suite in their organisation understands that they will need to upskill their technical staff to capitalise on the potential of low-code

• 70% agree that the C-suite in their organisation understands that they will need to upskill non-technical staff to create fusion teams that capitalise on the potential of low-code.

Yet, most senior IT decision-makers agree that low-code platforms work in partnership with their organisations to reduce risk – and are adapting to the governance of low-code:

• 68% agree that low-code reduces risk / increases compliance with the latest regulations

• 42% of respondents ranked governance and security as one of their three defining criteria for vetting a low-code platform. However, extensibility is an important factor for those in manufacturing (37%) – higher than any other sector surveyed.

Raymond Kok, CEO of Mendix, said, “We have always believed that low-code had the potential to be much more than a tool to automate manual processes. This survey shows that the market agrees. Used wisely, low-code is about rethinking entire business processes from the ground up. In turn, this enables the other critical benefit of low-code: innovation. Enterprises will be able to speed up digital transformation cycles and innovate at scale. Low-code also opens new avenues for fusion teams to think bigger when it comes to using tech to transform their organisation for the future, as long as they are prioritising upskilling users to maximise the potential of low-code for their unique use cases. Low-code continues to be closely aligned to today’s market’s needs, while also offering a springboard for future innovation.”