AI + No-Code: A Strategy for Success

OpenAI has overnight become the hottest name in tech as ChatGPT provides the public capabilities to pass exams, develop websites, and write intricate content articles. There is no doubt that this technology has become the most popular topic in the industry.

While supporters are excited, critics fear the potential of Generative AI. Some argue that we are in the midst of a revolution, while others believe the hype will soon fade away. In mean time, the offering of AI solutions are rapidly accelerating.

But what is the cost of entry? Should business managers invest, and if so, how and in what? These are the questions most business managers are asking themselves (and their IT-departments) today.

The Train is Coming

Let's take a moment to debrief. The agricultural revolution lasted thousands of years; the industrial revolution lasted hundreds; and the digital revolution lasted decades. Will the AI revolution wash over us in just a few years?

Yes, but not to the extent of completely replacing humans on a large scale. Industry disruptions are already occurring, with hundreds of new AI tools being released every week. However, the adoption of AI tools among corporations is still relatively slow.

According to a Cloud Spend Report published by Battery.com, which surveyed tech buyers across various industries, 32 percent of companies are looking to explore generative AI applications, but mainly for internal productivity, workflows, knowledge transfer, and cost reduction. Governance, security, and trust remain major hurdles.

Increased productivity is a key takeaway. It has been the primary outcome of all past revolutions and will likely also be the main output of Generative AI.

Will AI ultimately replace humans? History suggests otherwise. Throughout the revolutions, humans were never actually replaced; rather, they enabled humans to do more with less. Maintaining the status quo means fewer humans are needed to do the same work. However, the world never operates under the status quo and is always seeking improvements. In reality, technological leaps allow the same humans to do more.

Many businesses are already adopting new AI products, such as writing assistant software, to increase productivity. Developers are experiencing better productivity with coding co-pilots. But humans are still the pilots and will continue to be so in the vast majority of industries. But make no mistake, the co-pilots are getting smarter every day.

The train is coming. Our recommendation is not to buy an expensive first-class ticket and abandon everything else. Just get on board and explore: learn new tools, rethink your processes and way of working, explore the possibilities, and learn from others.

Supercharge Your Business with No-Code + AI

At Appfarm, our mission is to enable businesses of all sizes to create and launch custom software much faster to stay ahead of the curve. We strongly believe that combining modern no-code technology with AI is a match made in heaven, as it enables users to build applications really fast and supercharge it by integrating with AI APIs. This powerful combination allows small teams, and even individuals, to experiment and explore new ideas previously only available to big corporations.

Appfarm's out-of-the-box integrations not only allow users to rapidly integrate with OpenAI (or really any other AI service) but also with their internal systems or other third-party services.

Here's a few practical examples of using No-Code to create Applications that utilizes out-of the-box OpenAI APIs.‍

1. Product reviews analysis:
Analyze customer reviews to identify common complaints and pain points, track brand sentiment, and detect potential issues with product or services.

2. Intelligent document processing:
Automate document processing tasks, such as extracting relevant information from contracts, invoices and legal documents, saving time and reducing human error.

3. How-to guidance:
Let the user ask your documentation. Use OpenAI to extract keywords from the user’s questions, search your documentation for relevant articles, and use OpenAI to extract the essence of the articles to present as an answer to the user.

Appfarm provides a set of example applications combining no-code and AI, as well as a setup guide for you to kickstart your no-code and AI exploration. As an Appfarm no-code developer, you also have full access to the setup inside Appfarm Create.

"Make me an app that..."

The billion-dollar question is whether AI code generation will replace software development as we know it; hard-code and no-code alike.

Let's take a quick look at the following scenario:

"Make me an app that allows customers to submit inquiries, and our employees to handle them."

This is already feasible today, but a few key problems exist which will worry application owners and business managers:

Firstly, even though AI could auto-generate complex code, you would still need to take the code somewhere, make it part of a bigger application, adapt it to your process or need, integrate it, test and fix it, and deploy it. A deep understanding of the code is required. How would you dive into 1 million lines of code required to implement a complex business application?

Secondly, what if you want to make a very specific change without compromising the existing (manually added) integrations and fine-tuned optimization and data structure?

Thirdly, how would you make sure the AI understands all of your 841 business requirements, the way you understand it? Designing that prompt is no-code development itself, as this article clearly states.

So, at Appfarm, we truly believe that AI-assisted development through productivity-boosting co-pilots is the future.

The Appfarm Copilot

Appfarm enables business users to create complex business applications quickly and inexpensively, without sacrificing functionality and flexibility.

AI will provide even greater superpowers to the no-code developer. Our copilot is under development with many productivity-boosting features to be launched. We, like most other tech companies, are on a journey of exploration on how this technology can augment what we are already doing.

The first phase of this journey is to leverage AI APIs and services to improve the Appfarm Create learning experience. We will also provide templates and guides on how to use OpenAI in your own Appfarm apps.

The second phase is to augment the AI experience by introducing a multi-purpose Appfarm Create copilot. This will speed up certain no-code development tasks, such as data modeling, data creation, boilerplate app creation, and coding assistance. And these tasks should be based on natural language and conversations.

The third phase is the most interesting one, incorporating and training an LLM on Appfarm technology and content to provide an advanced assistant for creating and iterating app functionality or User Interfaces from natural language.

If you want to discuss or learn more, please reach out to us. You may also sign up for a 30-day free trial of our no-code development tool, Appfarm Create.