Implemented correctly, low-code application development offers businesses across industries a well-proven path for accelerating innovation and go-to-market goals. Make no mistake about it, low-code is a compelling advantage in any economic climate — but taking a low-code tack can be especially valuable in times when business trends are, well, less predictable. Low-code development is more cost-efficient and more flexible than traditional hardcoding, two factors that are especially valuable amid economic turbulence. As budgets tighten and productivity becomes more crucial, swiftly adapting to new market needs and conditions becomes all the more necessary.
Let’s look at how, exactly, low-code enables greater business agility in uncertain times:
Transform Productivity and the Developer Experience
Low-code development platforms enable both novice “citizen developers” and experienced coders to be far faster and more effective at creating — and optimizing — the applications they and their customers use. With low-code, users can assemble apps by connecting pre-coded Lego-like modules, mixing and matching the data, AI and other capabilities they need. This approach makes it possible to complete applications and bring them to market at speeds often 15 to 30 times faster than traditional development methods. This tremendous boost to productivity ensures that businesses can maintain robust and flexible development capabilities without overextending their resources.
At the same time, low-code removes the technical obstacles and tedious work that come standard when preparing the block-and-tackle of application environments and writing code manually. Employees without computer science degrees can be productive just like hardened developers, while experienced developers find that low-code makes their jobs easier and lets them get to the more creative and exciting parts of their projects quicker.
And a point not to be lost: Especially as developer talent also seeks safe harbor in the face of economic uncertainty, businesses able to offer superior low-code-enabled developer experiences are able to win the competition for this talent.
Access Premium Emerging Technologies on a Lean(er) Budget
Emerging technologies, including AI/ML, big data, IoT, voice, blockchain and APIs, are key drivers of business innovation and deliver tactical advantages in the battle for competitive differentiation. However, businesses face immense challenges when it comes to actually leveraging these technologies, especially from the perspectives of talent acquisition and cost. Fortunately, low-code development can put these technologies in reach at a fraction of their traditional costs.
The AI/ML field provides a stark example: There are just 300,000 trained AI engineers in the world, making the competition to hire these experts incredibly fierce — and the salaries they command incredibly expensive. However, low-code can abstract AI/ML capabilities into prepared code modules, bringing AI/ML application development within reach of any of the world’s 25,000,000 web developers. Thus, businesses can introduce innovations as effective as those coming from competitors with top experts on the payroll, with far less overhead. By keeping their budgetary powder dry, businesses also preserve their flexibility when economic circumstances do become more certain.
Adapt Quickly to Market Needs
The speed and agility of low-code development fuels faster iterations of application capabilities, interfaces and overall customer experiences. The result is a far greater responsiveness to ever-shifting market trends. This ability to build and test new application versions at a pace that laps competitors means businesses can win over customers with applications that are simply more capable, more elegant and better optimized front frontend to backend. As economic uncertainty influences customer needs and preferences in unpredictable ways, the rapid iterative development strategy that low-code enables allows businesses remains in step with the times and their customers.
Low-Code Empowers Businesses to Be Ready for Anything
Application development teams able to deliver speed, adaptability and access to a breadth of leading technologies have the upper hand in navigating their businesses through cloudy economic straits. Adopting a low-code strategy offers transformative business agility when it comes to keeping pace with changes and outmaneuvering competitors, no matter what the future holds.
Brian Sathianathan is the chief technology officer at Iterate.ai, where he leads the development of the company’s low-code platform, Interplay. Previously, Sathianathan worked at Apple on various emerging technology projects that included the Mac operating system and the first iPhone.
Iterate.ai delivers an innovation ecosystem for building production-ready low-code applications. Its solutions appeal to businesses seeking low-risk, systematic ways to scale in-house innovation initiatives and long-term strategic planning.
