How low-code development could boost AI adoption
Every company may want to put artificial intelligence to work, but most companies aren’t blessed with the ability to hire battalions of data scientists–nor is that necessarily the right approach. As Gartner analyst Svetlana Sicular once argued, often the best possible data scientist is the person you already employ who knows your data and simply needs help figuring out how to unlock it. For many business line owners, it’s this kind of approach that may make the most sense, as they seek to be smarter with the data they already have.
One company working to enable this vision is Cambridge, Massachusetts-based machine learning startup Akkio, which pairs AI with low code in an attempt to democratize AI. I caught up with company co-founder and COO Jon Reilly to learn more.
“There’s a revolution underway in how basic software gets built,” Reilly said. “Just as the clickable icons of Windows and then macOS replaced typing obscure DOS commands into a black computer-terminal screen, new ‘no-code’ platforms replace programming languages with simple drag and drop features.”
Though there are definite successes where AI has dramatically improved how technology gets built, in general the platforms are not yet powerful enough to create complicated software (Copilot can help on suggestions during coding, while Diffblue can automate Java unit test writing), but for simple needs like managing schedules or tracking customers they may be enough. The inevitable abstraction from code to graphical interfaces opens the door for any tech-minded person to build a software solution for basic tasks, rather than entering a ticket in the IT department’s crowded queue.
Even software developers are using these tools to solve simple problems fast.
“Every company can see productivity gains as they digitize their business,” Reilly said. “The problem is that not every company has a tech team capable of building software. Off-the-shelf products are rarely a perfect fit.”
Google, Microsoft and Amazon have all introduced products that allow users to create applications without writing a line of computer code. They target people who know the business far better than the IT department, yet lack deep technical expertise to write software. By dragging and dropping templates and combining them into logic trees, users can build software to do things like process invoices or present live data in a user-friendly format.
