New platforms give A.I. to the masses

Future. A.I.-backed no-code platforms (ones that give users simple prompts to build entire programs using machine learning) are turning average users into engineers. The explosion of these new platforms could eventually automate every boring task and turn employees into software developers… while putting a premium on creative thinking.

No-code community
In the very near future, everyone will be coding… without knowing how to code.

• Lobe.ai allows users to train a computer-vision system to recognize and differentiate objects — like a beekeeper who used it to automate the detection of hornets in a hive.
• Juji lets users create A.I. chatbots as if they were making “a PowerPoint presentation.” The University of Illinois has already used it to grow student recruitment for online programs.
• Teachable Machines, made by Google, allows users to turn switches on and off using nothing more than their facial expressions — an especially useful tool for those with disabilities.
• AppSheet, also made by Google, gives users the ability to simply connect data to the platform so that it can automatically be turned into an app, using computer vision to understand a user “intent.”
• Similarly, Microsoft’s Power Platform allows users to create apps simply by describing them.

Machine dreams
No-code platform users are routinely called “citizen developers,” regularly making new apps and services regularly despite having almost no developer training — like if they were using SquareSpace or WordPress to build whole apps. All they need are the right tools and imagination. Plus, powerful developments from Elon Musk’s OpenAI and Alphabet’s DeepMind are making it possible to even speak code-backed programs into existence.

Charles Lamanna, Microsoft’s VP of business apps and platforms, believes that half of all office work could be automated with A.I. — an innovation made possible because of no-code platforms.