AI-driven development with OutSystems Mentor
It comes as no surprise that AI continues to dominate headlines as we enter 2025. The immense value that organizations can unlock with AI and generative AI (GenAI) is astounding. McKinsey estimates that GenAI alone could add the equivalent of up to $4.4 trillion annually in value to the global economy.
Our team at OutSystems has fully embraced AI’s transformative potential—from announcing our SDLC digital worker OutSystems Mentor to successfully leveraging the power of AI across our own use cases, we know it goes well beyond the hype. With 93% of executives planning to increase their investment in AI-powered solutions, it’s evident that other organizations are eager to harness its full potential too.
We believe AI will continue to reshape the future of software development, presenting countless opportunities to enhance efficiency, boost productivity, and deliver business value. Here’s a roundup of 2025 predictions from the OutSystems leadership team, myself included, and what these trends mean for IT leaders and their teams.
Table of contents:
- AI prediction #1. AI and low-code will bring developers into the C-suite
- AI prediction #2. AI interactions will go multi-modal
- AI prediction #3. Conversational AI will radically transform how customers interact with digital platforms
- AI prediction #4. Continued evolution of AI will introduce new ethical, security, and governance concerns
- AI prediction #5. Data integration and quality will impede GenAI success
- AI and low-code is the way forward
AI prediction #1. AI and low-code will bring developers into the C-suite
- Rodrigo Coutinho, Co-Founder and AI Product Manager
Starting in 2025, the convergence of AI and low-code will present endless opportunities for IT teams and how they engage with executives and other key stakeholders. The future will bring an acceleration of AI-powered low-code solutions. This will create a world where artificial intelligence no longer generates code, it generates applications. This will completely transform how organizations create, customize, and modernize their applications.
What this means for IT teams: By leveraging AI-powered low-code solutions that eliminate the day-to-day grunt work, developers will be able to step into an elevated role where they can spend more time having impactful conversations with decision-makers about how technology can help solve business problems and achieve objectives. This evolution will complement developers’ best qualities—both their creativity and innovation—and challenge them to grow into a leadership role within their organizations.
AI prediction #2. AI interactions will go multi-modal
- Rodrigo Coutinho, Co-Founder and AI Product Manager
In 2025, humans will interact with AI models using a much broader range of languages and media, from text to video to imagery. This will significantly affect use cases, as more AI users will increasingly upload images or videos into AI models versus typing out lengthy prompts.
What this means for IT teams: From an application development standpoint, this is another opportunity for IT teams to embrace the combined power of AI and low-code to truly transform not only how they build applications, but also how they maintain and evolve them too. IT teams will be able to recreate or tweak common UIs by sharing a screenshot and instructions with an AI-powered low-code solution and achieve accurate results in a fraction of the time it would have taken to write new code.
AI prediction #3. Conversational AI will radically transform how customers interact with digital platforms
- Tiago Azevedo, Chief Information Officer
Transforming the customer experience consistently ranks high on the list of priorities for IT leaders, especially as it becomes a vital differentiator in a highly competitive market. In fact, 79% of customers surveyed stated they would switch to a competitor if they found the company or brand provided a better experience.
I believe AI will redefine how businesses engage with customers in 2025, moving beyond traditional interfaces to conversational, prompt-driven experiences. Instead of interacting with windows, buttons, or forms, we believe customers will increasingly engage with businesses through natural language prompts across text, audio, and video.
What this means for IT teams: To meet increasing customer expectations and maintain a competitive edge in 2025, IT teams will be fundamental in leading the charge to embrace data-driven, conversational technologies that foster customer engagement. This is an opportunity for IT leaders and their teams to prioritize the customer in technology decisions in 2025 and use it to increase retention and loyalty.
AI prediction #4. Continued evolution of AI will introduce new ethical, security, and governance concerns
- Miguel Baltazar, VP of Developer Relations
AI will continue to evolve, expanding its interactions in the virtual world by autonomously controlling computers and in the real world through autonomous vehicles, drones, and other IoT devices. This increases the level of AI-controlled interactions with humans and even between machines, which in turn will introduce a whole new layer of ethical, security, and governance concerns that we’ve never experienced before.
What this means for IT teams: Advancements in security and governance mechanisms are crucial for building trust and ensuring GenAI is deployed responsibly, securely, and in compliance with regulations. In 2025, I believe an increasing number of IT teams will implement DevSecOps practices that better manage risks and mitigate threats in their custom software and think this should be a top priority for all IT teams as their organizations explore more GenAI use cases.
AI prediction #5. Data integration and quality will impede GenAI success
- Luis Blando, Chief Product & Technology Officer
Companies implementing GenAI will continue to face data integration, quality, and privacy challenges—and will be the biggest hurdles in driving GenAI scalability and success in 2025. Understanding data structure and integrating data will be key as organizations look to expand adoption and unlock the full value of AI.
What this means for IT teams: To address the challenge of data silos and fully take advantage of GenAI’s powerful capabilities, I believe IT leaders and their teams need to prioritize data consolidation and integration, which will require unified platforms. Safeguarding data privacy and mitigating bias will also be essential during this process to maintain trust and compliance.
AI and low-code is the way forward
As we look ahead to software development in 2025, it’s clear to us that AI and low-code will play a central role, providing organizations a foundation for agility, scalability, and infinite innovation possibilities. By capitalizing on new technological advancements, IT leaders and their teams can help their organizations achieve efficiency at scale, gain a competitive advantage, and build resilience. I know the entire OutSystems team is looking forward to the year ahead and seeing where innovation takes our customers and the IT community.
