We have been discussing no-code apps recently. What exactly are no-code apps?

These days, it seems like every software investment and product announcement mentions a “no code” platform or feature, so are we entering a new era of “No Code” software?

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Similar to cloud computing, no-code is not a category in itself, but rather a shift in the way users interact with software tools.

Just as PCs popularized the use of software, APIs popularized software connectivity, and the cloud popularized the purchase and deployment of software, no-code may lead the next wave of enterprise innovation by popularizing specific technical skills.

No-code applications empower businesses by focusing on visual workflows, allowing users to take over functions that were previously handled by specialized technical positions. This profound generational change will affect every company and every user in the software market.

In a perfect world, all enterprise applications would be properly integrated, every front end would be shiny and presentable, and internal processes would be efficient and automated.

But in the real world, engineering and IT teams spend a disproportionate amount of time responding to security issues, fixing internal product bugs, and running vendor audits, and the enterprise technology stack has never been more complex. Enterprise teams often spend 30% of their resources building and maintaining internal tools, which both destroys productivity and increases technical debt.

Today, 72% of IT leaders believe that project backlogs prevent them from engaging in strategic planning, and that hiring alone cannot solve the problem. The demand for technical talent far exceeds supply, and 6 out of 10 CIOs believe that skills shortages will hinder organizations from keeping up with the pace of change.

While IT and engineering teams struggle to maintain internal applications, business teams continue to add fragmented third-party tools to increase their agility. In fact, the average enterprise supports 1,200 cloud-based applications at any given time. Lack of internal support often requires the introduction of external IT consultants. Cloud computing once promised easy software adoption through seamless integration, but the reality of rapidly changing business needs has led to a resurgence of expensive custom software.

The concept of no-code is not new. Excel is one of the earliest and most widely used no-code tools. But the new concept of no-code specifically refers to "no-code" programs that can be widely adopted in enterprises.

According to Forrester Research, 84% of enterprises have already started using low-code/no-code technologies, and Gartner predicts that by 2024, low-code/no-code will account for 65% of all application development.