“Your own apps are now just a prompt and a no-code block away!”
(Richard Seidl)
Today I’d like to open up a new perspective. A perspective on the industry we work in: technology, software and innovation. A perspective beyond the day-to-day view of our projects. Namely, on a wonderful quality that digitalization (let’s put it broadly) has given us. Let’s please pack all the negative consequences since the internet into a box and park it within sight. Just for the moment. We can take them out again later and deal with them. For the next few lines, let’s leave all the prejudice, data theft, advertising algorithms, smartphone procrastination, cybercrime, etc. in that box and look at something that runs through the last 30 years: democratization! Through innovations, services and software, we have freed ourselves in many areas of life from depending on an intermediary or provider and gained direct access. As human beings, as citizens of the world. Next in line is the democratization of software development: no-code platforms and AI code generators are opening it up to everyone, and that calls for responsibility.
Examples of Democratization
Access to information: Way back when, there were one or two news programs and a handful of daily newspapers. That was our access to current events. Today we have an incredible number of channels, groups, streams, podcasts, shows and blogs to keep ourselves informed.
Content creation: Running a radio station as an ordinary person just wasn’t realistic in the past. Sure, you could do it as a ham radio operator, but the reach wasn’t there. Today I can start a podcast, or even a “TV channel” on YouTube, in two clicks.
Access to the job market: We can offer our talents worldwide on platforms like Upwork or Fiverr. Years ago I had a very touching experience while talking to a designer in the Philippines about a new logo. Along the way I learned that these design jobs were what allowed his siblings to go to school.
Access to trade: We can sell our goods directly on marketplaces and platforms and ship them all over the world.
Renting: On platforms like Airbnb I can offer my unused junk room to globetrotters and be my own “hotel”.
No-Code and AI: The Democratization of Software Development
And now the next wall is coming down! Until now, anyone who wanted to build software or apps had to learn to program. For websites, working with frameworks without programming skills has been possible for a few years. But software? Apps for iOS and Android? Something really big is just getting started here, fueled by two movements:
- With ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini, I can now generate, improve, build out and extend code (as of today, Claude even shows the interface right away)
- New low-code and no-code platforms keep coming onto the market
With these tools, and the combination of them, the democratization of software development is right around the corner! I believe it will change quite a lot.
Democracy Needs Responsibility
So now we can open the box we set aside earlier and take all that trouble back into account. Because one thing is clear: democracy means everyone is also responsible for what happens with it (pretty agile, right?). And we can already see today what happens when we don’t take that responsibility: in society, in politics and in our tech bubble too.
Nobody is going to take that responsibility off our hands. Not even AI.
