The recent Accenture's "Technology Vision 2023" survey revealed that 100% of Thai respondents, the highest percentage globally, agree that generative AI will transform enterprise intelligence. This reflects that Thai executives are ready to embrace generative AI as the next performance frontier that brings tremendous opportunities for enterprise reinvention and disrupts traditional business models. With the use of AI foundation models, Thailand executives reported that two major benefits for their organisations include better customer experiences (78%) and accelerated innovation (68%). The top implementation risks Thai executives foresee are misaligned applications of the technology, stakeholder pushback, and high or increased costs. However, while these tools offer a range of benefits for software development, several common pitfalls also need to be considered.
Three pitfalls for AI app development
Among the challenges that organisations must be prepared to tackle when using AI tools include:
- Tech talent shortage hindering validation of the output: While AI tools enhance developer efficiency by generating code, they alone do not resolve the scarcity of technical expertise, as skilled developers are still essential to guarantee error-free and secure code and ensure its integrity and intended functionality.
- Neglecting other phases of the development lifecycle: Creating an application encompasses more than just code generation and debugging. It goes beyond the capabilities of any AI generation tool, as it involves establishing a development environment, compiling and building applications, overseeing code integration, testing, managing changes through DevOps practices, and handling application hosting and runtime management.
- Increasing technical debt: AI-based generative models possess immense potential to significantly accelerate the speed of generating new code. Nonetheless, it is important to exercise caution, as AI can jumpstart innovation but can also incur costs around maintaining and ensuring that applications are sustainable, especially if there are issues around code quality, governance and security. This may risk accumulating technical debt and increase potential burdens on already overwhelmed IT professionals.
To effectively address these challenges, it is crucial that organisations adopt an integrated approach - by leveraging technology that already embeds AI in its solutions, while also providing governance, security checks and developer support throughout the development life cycle.
Infusing AI into every stage of the app development lifecycle
By implementing the right setup, development teams can effectively overcome the aforementioned challenges and leverage AI to expedite app development.
To enable greater innovation, it is crucial to combine generative AI with low-code technology that promotes governance, embeds security checks, and supports developers throughout the entire software development lifecycle. This integration empowers more individuals and organisations by equipping them with tools to develop and modify applications with enhanced agility, scalability, and security. It enables them to model new applications with the appropriate architecture and user experiences, as well as analyse the business value and impact for the organisation.
Leveraging a ChatGPT connector is a great example. Such tools power virtual assistants that interact with users through natural language processing and generation. These virtual assistants can provide personalised responses, answer questions, and perform tasks, enhancing user experiences and accelerating productivity.
By harnessing the benefits of generative AI within their applications, developers can expand into new use cases and unlock new possibilities with interactive conversational experiences. This opens up avenues for improved customer support, virtual assistants, travel and booking applications, language translations, and various other applications.
Ultimately, in the arena of software development, leveraging a low-code development platform offers numerous additional benefits, especially after incorporating generative AI.
- Empowering junior developers: Low-code democratises the capabilities of AI, extending its reach to a wider spectrum of developers, including junior developers and IT professionals. This is achieved by implementing guided development and simplifying the process of specifying intent within applications, utilising a visual language that is easy to inspect and verify.
- Robust privacy and security and user controls: Data confidentiality is upheld in low-code platforms, ensuring that shared data remains private and inaccessible to unauthorised users. Additionally, developers are provided with the capability to define user permissions, enabling them to meticulously manage roles and responsibilities within the platform.
- End-to-end solution: When low-code solutions are combined with AI, they have the capability to cater to every stage of the software lifecycle. This includes tasks such as frontend design, data integrations, logic implementation, publishing, hosting, and more.
The combination of low-code and AI has the potential to revolutionise software development. By making AI an integral part of the development process, developers can unlock new possibilities and deliver high-quality applications with enhanced agility, scalability, and user experiences. However, it is important to be aware of the potential pitfalls of AI and low-code and take steps to mitigate them. By carefully planning and executing their projects, developers can ensure that they are using these technologies to their full potential.
Attributed to: Mark Weaser, Vice-President for Asia-Pacific OutSystems
Source: INWIS