We’ve been aware for some time that low-code and no-code tools and platforms have opened up the technology realm to “citizen developers” — those outside the IT department and may or may not have limited tech skills (though IT staff members may also be building their own under-the-radar apps as well). But there are still pains and complexities to application building that business users have yet to grasp. Can artificial intelligence and generative AI help smooth the low-code and no-code path?
Any available data on the trend is murky and outdated, but the numbers that keep getting bandied around are from Gartner’s estimates, circa 2021, that 80% of all applications development will eventually take place outside IT departments. Anecdotally, given the ease with which people can design and deploy mobile and cloud apps, it’s certain that to some degree everyone has become either an application developer or assembler.
Still, business leaders report issues with citizen development. “I’ve overseen several initiatives where teams adopted no-code platforms, and I’ve seen firsthand some unexpected hurdles they face,” Reyansh Mestry, head of marketing at TopSource Worldwide, told me.
Mestry added that citizen development suffers from “the illusion of simplicity.” while these technologies are marketed as intuitive, “the deeper teams go, the more complexities arise. For example, when our HR team attempted to create a payroll approval app, they rapidly ran into issues integrating tax updates from external APIs. The platform didn’t handle external data well, requiring more customization than anticipated.”
Add the challenge that “many end users still don’t comprehend program design, security, or data flow,” commented Jeffrey Zhou, CEO and co-founder of Fig Loans. “For example, teams at Fig Loans attempted to create internal automation tools but encountered data management challenges that required IT intervention to fix and optimize.”
The unforeseen technical bottlenecks of low-code and no-code “can be frustrating for non-developers, who initially feel they can manage everything without outside support, only to discover that app logic and data handling are more complicated than drag-and-drop tools suggest,” Mestry said.
Decision fatigue is another issue citizen developers face. “While platforms provide flexibility, that exact freedom can overwhelm business users,” Mestry continued. “They frequently struggle with structuring logic flows and effectively configuring security elements. When faced with too many decisions — about design, workflows, or permissions — they end up either creating inefficient apps or abandoning the project halfway through.”
Now, many are looking to generative AI, with its copilot class of tools, as a way to overcome these challenges. “AI models can help bridge the knowledge gap by automating code generation based on simple prompts or user intentions,” said Scott Dylan, founder of NexaTech Ventures.
“Instead of business users needing to learn the intricacies of app-building, they’ll be able to rely on AI to guide them through the development process or even generate entire applications from natural language descriptions,” Dylan continued. “In addition, AI can assist with troubleshooting, optimizing code, and ensuring security protocols, which traditionally required manual intervention.”
The introduction of AI “is a massive accelerant for the citizen development movement,” said Anthony Maggio, head of product management for Airtable. “Advances in AI have made technology capable of building applications from scratch based on a plain text prompt, allowing virtually any employee to build apps to transform their workflows.”
“As someone who constantly seeks ways to integrate tech into business, I’ve witnessed how generative AI is transforming citizen development,” said Rain Yang, CEO and founder of WoodenAve, a provider of decorative wood products. The key benefit of AI-enhanced low-code and no-code, Yang continued, is the removal of technical barriers. “Previously, non-technical users had ideas but lacked the means to execute them,” he said. “AI now enables users to swiftly experiment and construct apps that were previously unimaginable.”
While AI won’t necessarily expand the universe of citizen developers, it may provide a boost to those currently working with low-code and no-code platforms. “Generative AI isn’t really driving the broader citizen development of applications in a profound way,” said Cory Chaplin, leader of West Monroe’s technology and experience practice. “Instead, its role is more about enhancing specific tools or APIs that business users can leverage.”
For example, Chaplin related, “we’re seeing the rise of what we call ‘expert GPTs’ essentially low-code singular process workflows that use generative AI to process inputs and generate outputs. While these aren’t full applications, they are streamlined workflows built by citizen developers using low-code or no-code tools.”
While generative AI “is a component in these singular process workflows, it’s not the main driver of citizen development,” said Chaplin. “The focus is more on using generative AI to enhance specific tasks rather than on developing complete applications.”
Today’s generation of large language models “possess tremendous amounts of information, including company-specific context, industry landscape and best practices, historical knowledge, and more,” said Maggio. “While employees previously had to manually research this information when building an app, AI can provide this knowledge on-demand, taking no-code app building from a process that takes several hours to one that takes just several seconds.”
The bottom line is “it’s not just about enabling people to build apps,” said Labourey. “AI will allow citizen developers to build smarter, more adaptive apps, incorporating data-driven decisions in ways that were previously out of reach.”
