3 key trends for 2023: Low code/no code, generative AI and the evolution of programming

This year we will continue to see changes in the tech industry. As we have been preparing for a fundamental in how we work, technology plays a major role in how employees and companies can operate better, smarter, more efficiently and more productively. More than that, tech is a key player in how employees can connect with one another to create a truly collaborative work environment.

There are three major areas where we will see a shift across tech. Those include the evolution and increased use of low-code/no-code tools, changes in the world of programming and the growing role of generative AI.

Low-code and no-code tools have been a topic of controversy for a while. While they can be helpful for enabling customer success teams to build out the right tools without having to be full-time software developers, they can also cause issues within an organization.

This year will likely be focused on software that cuts costs, makes teams more efficient and removes excess. In these, low-code and no-code tools can be beneficial. They allow developers and employees who don’t have as much expertise to get started faster.

Part of that has to do with replacing teams with APIs. Similar to automation and low-code tools, APIs allow for cost optimization and inherently remove system complexity. APIs and low code builders are a major way to offset technical debt and cut internal processes.

In late 2022, many experts said that 2023 would be a transition year and an opportunity for companies to reset their business models and culture and analyze their tools. APIs and low code will further enable that.

Programming will fundamentally change

Over the next few years, we will see programming change in many ways. Tech, including tools like GitHub Copilot which recently launched new programming, has greatly impacted the ways that developers work. For one, it can help with admin work that many developers don’t find interesting and don’t want to devote time to.

In fact, a GitHub survey found that GitHub Copilot helped developers stay in the flow (73%) and preserve mental effort during repetitive tasks (87%). These findings show that tools like AI Copilot and other automation tools will become part of the essential toolkit for developers.

Further, as more developers get used to this kind of essential toolkit and automated help, they likely won’t want to go back. At a time when so much of our day-to-day work can be automated, the companies who aren’t implementing tools to push this forward will not only fall behind but lose talent. Employees, especially in the developer world, are looking to work creatively, and those who can automate and streamline their work will be able to do more of what they actually were hired to do (and what they like).

Generative AI will go away for a change

Generative AI has expanded in the last year with tools like DALL-E and ChatGPT. While there has been excitement from the industry at large for these tools, some of them will likely burn out while others will change.

Generative AI tools devoted to generating images have the greatest potential for burnout. People lose interest in tools like these because — while interesting at first — they don’t move the needle forward in ways that will be useful to the industry.

However, with the launch of ChatGPT, the world of generative AI has changed immensely. Toward the end of last year, every industry — and people who were never previously familiar with generative AI — were able to try out the tool. It became much more accessible to people outside of the tech world.

So while tools like ChatGPT may continue to grow in popularity, they will also need to change in a world where consumers demand transparency and security. As long as these tools follow guidelines and are transparent about where they are pulling information from, they will continue to thrive.

Conclusion

The pandemic pushed the tech industry forward in 2020, which was beneficial in many ways. With a recession in mind, many companies are in the process of reassessing their budgets and how they allocate resources to tech.

The theme in 2023 will be cutting costs, and enterprises will look to tools that help save employee time and money while enabling forward motion and business agility.

Christine Spang is CTO and cofounder of Nylas.