Your AI-built app is getting out of hand. Now what?
Your team built fast with AI, and now every change breaks something. Five signs it's getting out of hand, and what to do this week.
7 min read
Low-code · No-code · AI-assisted development
Senior guidance for building software using low-code, no-code and AI-assisted development.
From choosing the right approach to getting stuck projects back on track.
Featured insight
Four ways to build software, and how the balance shifted
Traditional code never went away. But in ten years, low-code, no-code and now AI-assisted development each claimed a real share of how new software gets built.
Traditional code
Hand-written by professional developers. Still the foundation.
>75%
of new enterprise apps in 2020 were built without low-code or no-code
Derived from Gartner (2021)
Low-code
Visual platforms for professional developers, code where needed.
70%
of new enterprise apps were expected to use low-code or no-code by 2025, up from under 25% in 2020
Gartner forecast (2021)
No-code
Business users build apps and automations themselves.
2.2×
forecast growth of citizen development platforms, 2021–2024
Gartner forecast (Dec 2022)
AI-assisted
Developers and AI write code together, from suggestions to agents.
79%
of developers used AI tools in 2025, up from 44% in 2023
Stack Overflow Developer Survey, measured (opens in new window)
- Traditional codemainstream from 2016
- Low-codemainstream from 2016
- No-codemainstream from 2019
- AI-assistedmainstream from 2021
Indicative figures from different sources and metrics, not directly comparable. Low-code and no-code figures are industry forecasts; nobody publishes measured totals. The AI figure is measured.
Sources: Gartner (2021, 2022), Stack Overflow Developer Survey. Indicative, not directly comparable.
Latest insights
All insights →From low-code to AI-assisted development: a transition without chaos
Moving from low-code to AI-assisted development? Seven steps to decide what to move, when and how, without breaking what works today.
7 min read
From proof of concept to standstill, and back: an online bookkeeping service
A proof of concept became an online bookkeeping service, then performance problems stopped development. How architecture and step-by-step control fixed it.
4 min read
Does the citizen developer exist? Revisited.
In 2020 I asked whether the citizen developer exists. Six years and one AI wave later: they do, but governance decided how far they got.
6 min read
Where are you now?
Adopting low-code or no-code
Should you, which platform, and how do you do it right from day one?
Moving to AI-assisted development
Is it your next step, and how do you get there without chaos?
Struggling with AI-assisted development
Quality, maintainability or control slipping? Let's get it back on track.
Hi, I'm Rob ten Kroode.
Thirty-plus years in software: from system administration to CTO, deep into low-code since 2016, and building with AI every day. I write about what actually works, and about what doesn't.
Stuck, curious, or just want to compare notes?
Services primarily in the Benelux, on site or remote. International projects on request.