Supercharge Low-Code Development with GenAI: 4 Steps to Success

Unlock the potential of GenAI and low-code development! Let’s explore 4 key steps to integrate GenAI for faster development and a competitive edge.

By Jessica Constantinidis , Field Innovation Officer for EMEA at ServiceNow

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has captured hearts and minds to a surprising extent, given its relatively recent migration to the public consciousness. In the GCC, the GenAI market is predicted to be worth $640 million this year but grow at a CAGR of almost 21% to reach US$2 billion by 2030.

This is a stark quantification of the technology’s phenomenal charm offensive. Private citizens, technologists, business leaders—it does not matter who you are or what you do. Everyone can see the potential in machine intelligence that can have flawless human-like conversations and then create formal documents from scratch, poetry, or music.

Imagine the potential in business. Just think of the myriad ways GenAI can augment human agents by automating mundane tasks and significantly helping creative ones. Given software’s ability to process information, if we could imbue it with the ability to innovate, we would indeed have a powerful ally. Currently, the Arab Gulf has skills gaps that pervade every STEM discipline.

GenAI can plug these gaps. Most organisations do not have enough skilled coders to execute their digital strategies. GenAI has the potential to transform development when it joins forces with another hot trend (although admittedly, one that makes fewer headlines): low-code development. From ideation to implementation and beyond to testing and deployment, GenAI could help regional enterprises master the development lifecycle once and for all.

Technologists and industry analysts predict that GenAI and low-code will collaborate to help organisations meet the surging demand for digital experiences. GenAI has the expertise and ease of use required to empower citizen developers and accelerate time to market. One of low-code's greatest strengths is eliminating translation errors between business stakeholders and requirements analysts.

Those with domain knowledge can forge ahead and add value quickly. And GenAI guides them through best practices and applies governance standards. A functional, secure, compliant application can sometimes be built in hours by briefing a GenAI-powered virtual assistant using natural language.

But powerful as these two technologies are, deploying GenAI and low code without due consideration of best practices would be a mistake. The right steps will lead to the right outcomes. There are four of these steps.

1. The right people

Some regional businesses will have an in-house team of developers, and some will not. However, the power of low code, especially when supported by GenAI, can benefit both types of organisations. Even professional coders can code faster and more accurately with low-code and GenAI.

From a strategy perspective, however, companies must take stock of their workforce and think about who might gain most from these technologies and who has the potential to add the most value. Do not overlook non-developer technical staff such as admins and analysts. Design a phased-release program that equips each category and trains them appropriately with due regard for their role. Scale, industry, and the size of the existing developer pool are not factors that determine an organisation’s ability to adopt low-code development platforms and GenAI. Almost anyone can benefit as long as they are empowered correctly.

2. The right use cases

GenAI fits into the technology mix whether you build an application from scratch or customise an off-the-shelf solution. Before integration projects kick-off, however, it is best to make sure solutions architects have focused appropriately on use cases. They should design solutions that are based on business capabilities and people empowerment. GenAI can help with code generation, flow generation, and recommendations on script versus flow. It is worthwhile starting with these use cases, considering that more will emerge over time. GenAI will likely be used in more sophisticated use cases, including process generation and process automation design.

3. The right brief

GenAI can do many things, but it cannot read minds. Its results are only as good as its initial instructions. The quality of human input is crucial, so organisations must train users of all stripes to give clear prompts. Please be careful in laying out the end goals of the app, the details of how it will be used, and what users hope to gain from it. These prompts will be in the form of task requirements, API specifications, and even potential constraints. It is important to get the brief right and to learn from missteps.

4. The right feedback

Bedding down a new technology is a trial-and-error process. Stakeholders must design this process to accommodate feedback. Progress measurement and reporting should always allow implementation leaders to see how far they have come and need to go. You should see better-quality code.

You should see shorter development cycles. You should see happier developers who are focusing more on innovation than deadlines. If you do not see all these things, return to the drawing board and ensure genAI is being applied by the right people to the right use cases and that the right briefs are being issued.

Our future assured

GenAI is a gamechanger. We knew this from the very moment we encountered it. When every enterprise can be an app factory, competitiveness is ramped up, and economic growth follows. Customers will, of course, be delighted. Employees will be empowered and inspired to go further and innovate more often.

What we are building here is something much more special than the extraordinarily powerful technologies of genAI and low code. We are building an inclusive, democratised development cycle with more efficient, secure, and exciting outputs. In a digital economy, this is the foundation of sustainable competitiveness.