As the demand for rapid software development continues to grow, low code development platforms are emerging as a game changer in the world of application development. In this era of digital transformation, low code trends are making it easier than ever for businesses to create custom applications, streamline workflows, and improve response to market changes.
The use of low code has increased in recent years due to the benefits it offers in terms of time, cost, scalability, and risk reduction. These advantages have given rise to new use cases such as rapid prototyping, rapid deployment, and new product development.
As per globenewswire, the global low code market size was worth USD 16.3 billion in 2021. It is estimated to reach an expected value of USD 148.5 billion by 2030. This should be a clear indicator that this technology has taken the business world by storm and organizations shouldn’t be missing out on utilizing them.
The low code trends for 2024 are:
Trend #1- Democratization of development
Democratization of development means making the software development process available to citizen developers to reach wider audience beyond professional developers. The capabilities provided by solution providers make it somehow easy for non-technical users “citizen developers” to create simple to complex applications without writing extensive code.
This trend has several benefits including increased productivity, faster time-to-market, and the ability to address a wider range of business needs. By empowering business users and citizen developers to build their own applications, it can also help organizations to reduce their reliance on IT departments and create a culture of innovation.
However, there are also some issues associated with the democratization of development including ensuring the quality and security of applications built by non-technical users, managing the proliferation of applications across the organization, and addressing issues related to governance and compliance.
Trend #2- Increased adoption by larger enterprises
As per Gartner, organizations are increasingly turning to low-code no-code development platforms to fulfill growing demands for speed application delivery and highly customized automation workflows.
In order for this trend to be adopted, these providers should emphasis on scalability and enterprise-grade capabilities and overcome related challenges that is halting the use of this ecosystem in big companies. Large enterprises are more concerned in security, scalability, and other capabilities that are required to be massively adopted. I recommend checking this guide to understand all low code limitations before the adoption phase.
One of our predictions is that increased focus should be given on adding these required capabilities to allow organizations from different sizes to benefit from this awesome technology.
Trend #3- Integration with AI and ML
Any technology that wants to exist in the future must certainly be fully integrated with AI and ML. As we can see, there is a big competition between Google and Bing to integrate artificial intelligence to make finding information simpler.
One of the most important low code trends is empowering these technologies with advanced capabilities that will allow citizen developers to target complex business applications without acquiring advanced skillset to develop and deploy digital solutions.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help in a number of ways by providing advanced automation and intelligence capabilities. For example, AI can be used to enhance the development experience by providing intelligent code completion, automated testing, and other productivity tools that can speed up development and improve the quality of low code applications.
Trend #4- Expansion of low code to complex applications
A new remarkable trend in the low code development landscape is the expanding capability to handle the create of complex applications. As you might know, it was initially recognized for their ability in rapidly building simple applications however they are now increasingly proving their power to tackle more complex projects.
This is coming from the evolution that is driven by the advancements in the underlying architecture that is allowing developers to address complex business processes, industry specific requirements, and enterprise-level projects.
Trend #5- Adoption of low code in regulated industries
This refers to the trend of low code gaining acceptance in industries with strict regulations and compliance requirements such as finance, healthcare, and government. These industries have traditionally been hesitant to adopt new technologies due to concerns around security and regulatory compliance.
For example, in healthcare, it can be used to create applications that comply with HIPAA regulations and enable secure sharing of patient data. In finance, it can be used to build applications that comply with regulations around data privacy, risk management, and anti-money laundering (AML) laws.
Trend #6- Integration with DevOps and Agile methodologies
Integration with DevOps and Agile methodologies is considered one of the most important low code predictions because it enables low code development to become more agile, collaborative, and efficient.
Most of organizations are adopting agile methodologies such as SCRUM and KANBAN in their software development lifecycle to allow timely release schedule and faster response to feedback. To be widely adopted, more seamless integration with other technologies is needed that can make agile development a breeze and prioritize collaboration, continuous integration and delivery, and fast feedback loops.
Trend #7- Integration with data analytics and BI tools
Integration with data analytics and business intelligence tools is considered one of the most important predictions because it enables low code development to become more data-driven, insightful, and impactful.
Data analytics and BI tools are used to analyze and visualize data, identify patterns, and make data-driven decisions. By integrating with these tools, it can provide citizen developers with the tools and capabilities they need to build applications that leverage data and analytics to provide insights and value.
Trend #8- Scalability and performance
For organizations to go mass adoption with low code, they need to be able to build diverse and complex applications using this technology in addition to handling larger workloads to ensure optimal performance.
Scalability is very essential for applications that helps organization to accommodate the growing demands of an application as it evolves and expands without any disruption. To meet enterprise-level requirements, they need to invest in robust infrastructure and architecture to support applications at scale.
On the other hand, performance optimization and applying low code best practices guarantee that applications developed using this technology not only function seamlessly but meet the performance expectations of end-users.
Trend #9- Focus on User Experience (UX)
In order for an application to be massively used within an organization, it needs to have an excellent user experience to allow employees to complete their business tasks easier.
The low-code community has recently recognized the importance of user centric design and made it a clear goal to place a higher priority to enhance their offerings and capabilities to increase UI/UX.
This trend aligns with the understanding that an application’s success is not solely determined by its functionality but also by the quality of the user interface and overall user experience.
