Combining Low-Code and GenAI for App Delivery
Last month, OutSystems held our ONE conference in Amsterdam, and I'm still riding high on its success. The conference was buzzing with excitement about Mentor, the Generative Software Cycle, and where the OutSystems platform is headed next. Tech leaders shared stories, developers brainstormed, and experts showcased the OutSystems platform. Our customer panels were infused with innovation, inspiration, and practical strategies—all made possible by our low-code development platform.
The event kicked off with a vision of a brilliant future for application development and generative AI shared by OutSystems CEO and Founder Paulo Rosado. On the mainstage, he highlighted that artificial intelligence (AI) has been an underpinning of the OutSystems platform for more than five years—it’s in our DNA (you could say we have DNAI). I’ve been thinking a lot about what Paulo and our guests on stage showed us and what it all means. Here’s what I think.
Generative AI is changing everything we do
Why is generative AI (GenAI) such a big thing, finally putting AI on the map even though it has been around for years? The answer is simple: For the first time, an advanced technology system is experienced in plain English. It sounds and responds and engages with us like we do with our friends and colleagues. That’s a massive shift in technology. It takes me back to the shift to the Internet, which I remember well.
The early years of the internet are etched in my memory. I edited a book on manufacturing and the internet in the mid-1990s and learned that there was a whole world out there in cyberspace that was full of promise. But what really changed things for me was in 2000 when I began working remotely, and it quickly eliminated my commute of more than one hour from my house to IBM’s campus in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The internet was clearly the most transformative technological advancement of the late 20th century. It changed how I did my job, how I communicated, how I learned and discovered new things, and how I saw the world.
Fast-forward to now, and AI is an even bigger shift than the internet. At first it was a novelty of sorts with Watson winning Jeopardy. After that, it seemed to settle into use cases suited for consuming mass quantities of data and delivering insights and decisions faster than humans with natural language processing and machine learning. But then it happened–AI became a household name overnight in late 2022 when OpenAI made ChatGPT available—and it spoke to us. Literally.
Already, companies have been embeddingChatGPT and other generative AI technologies into our lives at work and home. I’m no neural network, but I predict that by 2026, the whole world will be different. The children, teens, and college students of today will be doing and experiencing things that are way beyond our imaginations even though 2026 is less than two years away.
Even today, how applications are developed (and even who develops them) is changing dramatically. And, OutSystems is leading the way forward with AI and a new way of approaching application development and the SDLC for the enterprise. Since software applications are the foundation of business, this shift is remarkable–and our announcements at ONE show how we’re taking advantage of it.
Say hello to Mentor, your dream-team AI assistant across the SDLC
After explaining that the Generative Software Cycle is here, Paulo segued into announcing our latest game-changing innovation: Mentor. Mentor is the first full SDLC digital worker, transforming app generation, delivery, and monitoring using low-code, generative AI (GenAI), and AI-driven guidance.
Developers of any skill level–or even none at all–can start building apps that fit unique requirements through rapid iteration and generative AI-powered assistance. We believe skilled developers will still be needed to do the heavy lifting, but Mentor opens up development opportunities to more people, ideas, and workflows.
Among the many new features of Mentor are:
- Instant app generation with conversational prompts: Developers can use natural language to describe an application or upload a requirements document, and Mentor will build a full functional app. New and seasoned developers and business users can work together to build apps that meet specific enterprise needs.
- An app editor powered by AI and ML: Mentor cuts out the guesswork in iteration. Developers can evolve applications effortlessly using AI-powered suggestions, enabling continuous improvement and rapid iteration.
- Code reviews: Acting like an expert reviewer, Mentor provides comprehensive application validation, analysis, and guidance. Its code reviews ensure that all applications meet the highest possible standards for development, security, performance, architecture and long-term maintainability.
Get all the details in Mentor–your dream-team digital worker, ready to assist.
Not-so-secret agent builder
ChatGPT has captured global attention by creating content from prompts. It can answer questions and compose emails, essays, and code, sparking new waves of creativity, efficiency, and innovation. Now there’s new excitement about using it and other AI capabilities to create AI agents, which is why OutSystems offers AI Agent Builder as a Mentor feature. Developers can now create GenAI agents—regardless of their AI experience level—and embed them into apps. They can even use app data as context for more intelligent and responsive AI agents.
The bigger picture: Building applications the way you want
Mentor focuses on building highly adaptive app experiences that use the power of generative AI and AI to accelerate time-to-market, empower more junior developers and non-coders, and manage through rapid change and interaction. These AI-generated apps will provide the same level of enterprise-grade features and customizations as apps built with the OutSystems platform today. The great advantage here is that IT organizations will be able to meet the continuous and complex changes and demands being thrown their way from every part of the organization and end users. Yes, please!
Another important aspect of Mentor is that it is part of a larger message–one steeped in our mission from the time we were founded: Enable more people and organizations to innovate, which means giving them the tools to develop and change apps faster with greater agility, scale, and security. In 2022, when we announced the acquisition of Ionic, we added another qualifier to that message, which was “their way.”
We want to enable anyone building apps to use the tools and skills they have and like by offering more development options in our platform. With Mentor, we have added the additional benefit of using natural language to move from ideation to a working application. So, if someone’s comfort level is “I want to build an app but I don’t know code,” they’re covered, too.
Learn more by visiting our OutSystems AI page or booking a demo.
