Amazon Web Services (AWS) is previewing a low-code tool for building applications that leverages generative artificial intelligence (AI) to make it simpler for IT professionals to create custom software via a natural language interface.
Launched at an AWS Summit New York event, AWS App Studio provides IT teams with an AI assistant that makes it possible to build an application in minutes.
Dr. Matt Wood, vice president for AI products at AWS, told conference attendees AWS App Studio is specially designed for IT professionals that often lack the programming expertise that would otherwise be needed to build a low code application.
Any time an IT professional creates a prompt, AWS App Studio generates an outline to verify the intent and then builds an application that includes a multi-page user interface (UI), a data model and business logic. IT teams can also use prompts to connect to specific data sources using connectors for AWS services or third-party data sources such as Salesforce.
Once an application is ready to deploy, App Studio generates a custom URL that end users can access using existing enterprise authentication tools and role-based access controls. The tool also makes it possible to track usage patterns, control user and data access, and set compliance and security guardrails.
AWS currently plans to make AWS App Studio available for free, but will charge organizations based on the amount of time employees spend using any published applications. AWS claims that approach promises to reduce costs by up to 80% compared to other low-code platforms.
Additionally, usage of a low-code tools infused with AI will reduce the number of errors that would normally occur when IT teams attempt to build applications using other low-code tools.
It’s not apparent to what degree IT organizations will limit usage of tools such as AWS App Studio to the kinds of internal applications that many of them have built for decades using various types of databased platforms. However, the backlog of requests for these applications should be substantially reduced.
Paul Nashawaty, principal analyst for application development at The Futurum Group, said AWS App Studio is part of a larger democratization of AI trend that makes IT platforms more accessible. Those capabilities will enable organizations to address skill gaps issues that conspire to limit the number of applications any IT team might be able to build, he added.
It’s not clear to what degree IT teams are willing to move away from the tools they currently use to build applications, many of which are extensions of the IT service management (ITSM) platforms they already use to manage IT operations.
Regardless of approach, the one thing that is certain is AI will soon be widely employed by those teams to not only automate internal IT processes, but also build many of the applications that IT teams have built to, for example, automate workflows in other departments.
Of course, many of those tools are adding AI capabilities of their own, so the degree to which IT teams might be willing to switch tools is unknown, but as the number of platforms that have these tools increase, the pace at which an IT team can build any application is only going to accelerate.
