More than a decade ago, one would have scoffed at the idea of business users dipping their toes into the gritty arena of tech and coding. However, the concept has become a reality over the last few years, with citizen developers surfacing increasingly in modern enterprises—minus the coding skills.
They’re saving time that would have been spent on protracted app development cycles. They are also helping cut down costs on expensive tech consults. Most importantly, there is an unlikely and emerging element propelling citizen developers to new heights: artificial intelligence.
With AI as its copilot, this new business-tech superhero is helping companies shift from obsolete systems to digital, automated workflows. That sounds great—but how does it help?
- Business users, i.e., the people who are closest to the challenges their enterprise is facing—whether it’s about automating invoice processing or building inventory tracking apps—are directly solving issues without writing a single line of code.
- By layering AI into these platforms, enterprises can further lower the barriers to creating software. Citizen developers can easily outsource repetitive tasks to AI, use it to tap into and analyze data-heavy reports, and clear IT backlogs in half the time.
In this article, we’ll discuss the role of AI among citizen developers and innovation, touch upon the challenges they may face, and how AI helps overcome them.
From One-Dimensional Business Users to AI-Led Innovators
In an MIT Sloan Management Review webcast, Tom Davenport and Ian Barkin discussed how IT and businesspeople are “converging toward the middle.” This is happening fast, with a Gartner study predicting that non-tech developers will soon outnumber tech developers four to one.
What’s helping fast-track this transformation? AI, in all shapes and forms.
Specifically, Davenport and Barkin suggest that technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA) and intelligent automation (IA) could help fill the skills gap that citizen developers are grappling with.
This puts them at the perfect intersection of business and tech, giving them a vantage to understand and apply both sides of the equation—without relying on specialized IT staff. For instance, RPA can help citizen developers:
- Access and curate data from multiple systems
- Automate high-volume tasks, such as processing hundreds of invoices or updating records
- Route customer inquiries and better manage workflows
Let’s imagine a scenario where a logistics coordinator is tasked daily with flagging orders that may be at risk of delay—whether due to inventory shortages or shipping issues. Manually, this process takes nearly two hours and is also prone to human error.
Meanwhile, the IT team, which is swamped with project backlogs, cannot devote time to building an automated workflow solution. It would miss key business-side nuances, such as seasonal exceptions or special-case handling, even if it were to build one.
By using RPA and IA, the coordinator can automate their workflow, potentially helping them:
- Access relevant data on demand, whether new orders, inventory levels, or shipment updates.
- Apply a set of business rules to handle exceptional cases, such as handling VIP cases urgently.
- Analyze historical patterns to predict what kinds of shipments are most frequently delayed.
How Does Generative AI Help With Automation?
Davenport discusses the use of Generative AI in the RPA and IA ecosystem. Thanks to the integrations between RPA vendors and ChatGPT, business users can independently use plain language to describe a preferred workflow to automate and design a prototype—without coding expertise.
For example, tools like Alpha TransForm can help citizen developers easily use natural language to describe what they’d like an app to do. With a few prompts, the built-in AI generates conditional logic and UI and integrates it with existing business systems. Think of it as a prompt-and-build tool—a fantastic upgrade from the erstwhile drag-and-drop function.
The result? In industries like logistics, manufacturing, and healthcare, where time and IT resources are scarce, business users can offload their tasks onto AI-powered tools and build customized apps within a day.
Why Is AI Use Necessary for Citizen Developers?
In a Forbes article, Reyansh Mestry, Head of Marketing at TopSource Worldwide, explains that while many enterprises encourage citizen developers to build apps without coding, the latter often suffer from decision fatigue. As they frequently struggle with structuring logic flows, designs, and permissions, they may end up creating inefficient apps.
This is where AI can bridge the skill and knowledge gap by automating code generation based on simple prompts or user intentions—NexaTech Ventures founder Scott Dylan added in the same article. He also mentioned that citizen developers can use AI to help them troubleshoot and refine security protocols—tasks that traditionally require manual intervention.
As a result, with AI in their toolkit, citizen developers can build more efficient apps while also saving time and reducing costs—achieving the opposite of resource-heavy, traditional app development practices.
- A McKinsey study found that citizen developers were 25-30% more likely to complete complex tasks within a certain time frame when they used AI-based tools.
- The International Data Corporation (IDC) projected that by 2026, 60% of Asia-Pacific enterprises will build applications using open-source AI models—thus driving innovation and cost efficiency.
- A Pulse and Salesforce report noted that 63% of businesses plan to invest in AI and automation tools to promote innovation and higher productivity.
Rain Yang, CEO and founder of WoodenAve, sums up the most standout benefit of the AI-enhanced low-code/no-code era. He says that AI enables non-technical users with ideas to execute them, as they can swiftly experiment and construct apps that were previously unimaginable.
What Next?
As enterprises shift towards how they view and use AI in their citizen development strategies, the future will see more powerful use cases—from predictive analytics dashboards to AI copilots integrated into business apps. As a result, the distance between IT and business users will continue to shrink, helping build more efficient, user-centric apps.
Some low-code platforms like Alpha Software are already tuned into the trend and are helping enterprises deliver results across industries, from manufacturing and logistics to healthcare.
Are you curious to understand how AI-led low-code platforms can power your enterprise’s app-building plans? Start building your first low-code app with Alpha Software today.
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