2025 IDC MarketScape: Low-Code and No-Code Technologies
Agentic AI is emerging as the defining innovation in software for 2025, according to a new survey by OutSystems and KPMG, published by CIO Dive. Organizations around the world are turning to agentic systems to automate workflows in every stage of the software development life cycle, and many are already seeing significant gains in efficiency and productivity. In this blog, I take a look at what the 550 executives who responded to the survey had to say about agentic AI adoption and its potential impact on their organizations.
Why is agentic AI adoption growing? What makes it so hot?
Agentic AI refers to intelligent systems that can reason and take action autonomously with minimal human input. In these systems, agents break down complex goals into tasks, interact with APIs and tools, evaluate results, and iterate independently. In this video, Gonçalo Borrega, OutSystems VP of Product, AI & AppDev, explains what is needed to make this work.
Its potential impact on productivity and efficiency is huge. No more switching between multiple apps, no more PDFs that need to be specially designed for virtual signatures, no disjointed onboarding processes.
Investment in agentic AI surges
Almost 95% of the executives say they plan to increase their investments in AI technologies, including agentic systems, over the next 12 months. The opportunities are clear, with 62% of executives citing improved software quality as a main reason for rolling out new AI technologies.
In fact, almost half of organizations in the survey are already integrating agentic AI systems, while a further 28% are actively piloting them, and 11% have plans to integrate them into development workflows and applications in the next 18 months. Fewer than 1% of respondents claimed to have no plans to integrate agentic AI.
More than half of the executives said that organizations were also turning to agentic AI to accelerate digital transformation and software development times, automate routine development tasks, and improve customer experiences.
New and exciting opportunities materialize with agentic AI
It’s true that the last couple of years have seen a substantial rise in the use of generative AI tools across IT and business; however, agentic AI is the next sea change in the industry. Most organizations plan to use agents to fully automate specific internal business processes and improve and personalize customer experiences.
Around half have a strategy for putting in place autonomous service solutions that use agentic AI tools in the next two years. A remarkable 77% plan to use agentic systems for system monitoring and automated incident response. When it comes to deciding whether to build or buy agentic AI solutions or agents, the responses were mixed.
To build or buy and the rise of agent-as-a-service
As is often the case with any new technological innovation, debate continues around whether to build or buy agentic AI tools. This time, many organizations are mixing and matching, with about a third considering procuring prebuilt solutions or integrating prebuilt agents in existing systems. However, many software teams are also developing their own custom AI agents in-house, either using proprietary tech stacks, open-source frameworks or, rarely, low-code platforms.
Clearly, there’s a huge, albeit largely unrealized, opportunity in using low-code platforms for developing agents. Their visual development environments are a natural match for building agentic AI systems. They make it easier to create custom AI agents and orchestrate external prebuilt agents. And when the low-code platform is AI-powered, QA, testing, and debugging are quick and automated.
AI-powered low-code for the agentic win
The general optimism surrounding generative and agentic AI in software development is well-founded. Around two-thirds of the executives surveyed say their organizations are already seeing improved software quality, increased developer productivity, and enhanced scalability across their development efforts.
Given the focus on personalized customer experiences, the adoption of agentic AI is a vital competitive differentiator now and in the years to come. This is also an area where AI-powered low-code platforms will provide distinctive benefits to organizations, simplifying and automating the end-to-end SDLC.
Navigating Agentic and Generative AI in Software Development: Human-Agent Collaboration is Here, the report based on the OutSystems and KPMG survey, has even more statistics and information on the state of agentic AI and where it’s headed.
