The Future of Application Development

The demand for software, or more precisely, for microservices that have to cover a narrowly defined range of tasks, will grow dramatically over the next five years. According to the e-book “Exploring the Possibilities of Low Code” published in 2022, 500 million new apps will be created. This is roughly equivalent to the number of all applications developed in the previous 40 years.

This demand can only be met if there are changes in application development, says CIOmover Ricardo Diaz Rohr from Grand Automotive Central Europe. Low-code/no-code tools are still available for this because they transfer the sovereignty over application development from the hands of specialized developers to those of users who can precisely formulate the requirements for apps from a technical point of view, but have not had the specialist knowledge to program them up to now.

AI will disruptively change software development

However, artificial intelligence will probably cause the greatest disruption in application development: AI can write entire programs, routines and microservices virtually on demand and practically automatically. And the AI agents of the (near) future will not only be able to code, but also act independently when designing, testing and deploying. This will drastically shorten development cycles, improve the quality of applications and facilitate collaboration between specialist departments and IT.

The specialist departments are becoming increasingly important

The importance of specialist departments in application development will increase because they have the expertise to make them work. AI will take over the development knowledge. IT will remain active in application development, but it will also have the role of enabling the business to become more involved in this area. Issues such as data security, privacy, quality assurance and data infrastructure will remain in the hands of IT, which is also responsible for integrating the many applications into IT architectures.

Your own ERP?

It is an exciting question whether the ability to develop many small, customized applications for specific tasks can lead to the ability to develop large solutions, including a proprietary ERP system. The advantage: this ERP system would be perfectly tailored to a company’s needs and would also eliminate dependence on large vendors. In all likelihood, it would also be cheaper.

But does it make sense? As much as low-code/no-code and, above all, AI can help with application development, developing an ERP system remains an extremely complex matter. Perhaps hybrid approaches will prove their worth: Adapting and developing off-the-shelf systems in customized environments will free companies from the clutches of individual vendors and give them the flexibility they need for the future of application development.