Mendix Announces The First AI-Assisted Low-Code Development Environment

Mendix Assist uses machine learning analysis of over 5 million application logic flows to deliver 90% accuracy on next-step suggestions and reduce the cost of development defects by 100x.

Boston, MA – June 19, 2018 – Mendix, the fastest and easiest platform to create and continuously improve mobile and web applications today announced Mendix Assist, the first AI-assisted development built into a low-code application development platform.  Based upon ML analysis of over 5 million anonymized application flows built with Mendix across 15 industries, Mendix Assist provides 90% accuracy on next-step suggestions and expert quality, performance and maintenance recommendations.  Enterprises can leverage Mendix Assist to boost developer productivity, mentor new developers, and decrease the cost and time impact of defects by 100x.

According to Gartner, “to keep pace with the demands of digital transformation initiatives, application development teams will augment their efforts with AI “co-developers” to streamline programming efforts.”  Gartner predicts that “by 2022, at least 40% of new application development projects will have virtual AI co-developers on their team.” ⁽¹⁾

Enterprises will benefit from Mendix Assist in three main ways:

• Hands-on mentoring for new developers with AI-assisted next-step-suggestions to teach them how to build apps in real time. Mendix Assist is the equivalent of having a world-class coach looking over their shoulder to dramatically accelerate the learning curve without the added cost of additional training resources.
• Increased developer productivity and capacity with AI-assisted development including ‘complete the thought’ smart suggestions for application logic flows. This development support provides the benefits of “pair programming” without needing two expensive resources on the task.
• Decreased time and cost impact of functional and non-functional defects by preventing them before they happen. By providing consistency checks and quality oversight including security configuration consistency, software maintainability and application scalability, Mendix Assist spots issues that normal analysis wouldn’t find as well as provide actionable feedback directly to the developer at time of creation.  Mendix Assist continues to get smarter over time via learning algorithms that expand the AI knowledge base, incorporating insights from all applications being built on Mendix and tailoring the assistance to an organization’s business processes and development style.    

“With a one percent unemployment rate for software developers, the talent shortage is not forecasted to improve and development managers have been lacking the means to dramatically improve team productivity. They have also been unable to tap into the nearly 10-times as many non-technical developers available, and teaching and enabling them to build applications is key to jumping on the digital transformation train,” said Johan den Haan, CTO, Mendix.  “Mendix Assist is like training wheels for first-time developers and drive-assist for more seasoned developers.”

“The cost of fixing a software bug grows 100x from development to release,” said Desiree Fraser, Practice Manager Custom Software Development, Capgemini.  “Preventing issues at time of development dramatically reduces the time and cost of re-work and gives us the opportunity to focus even more on business value and speed up digital transformation for our customers. We are excited to see that we can leverage this new technology integrated into Mendix’s low-code development platform.”

Mendix Assist will be generally available in the third quarter of this year. 

¹ Gartner, Inc., “Predicts 2018: Application Development,” November 21, 2017, Mark Driver, Van L. Baker, William Clark, Thomas E. Murphy, Nathan Wilson, Rob Dunie, Joachim Herschmann, Keith James Mann

About Mendix

Mendix, a Siemens business, is the only low-code platform designed to address the full complexity of enterprise software development challenges. Deploying point solutions to departmental problems solves things at a micro level—but if you want to make a significant impact on your business, you need to go bigger and build powerful portfolios that move the needle sustainably and strategically.

With Mendix, enterprises can take on more complex, transformational initiatives by engaging everyone in capturing requirements, forming ideas, and embedding value assessment throughout the lifecycle of the software portfolio.

Focus on the right problems while relying on governance and control to avoid unnecessary risk. Mobilize your organization. Build the change readiness muscle. And when the next big idea drops, turn it into an outcome quicker.

More than 4,000 organizations in 46 countries use the Mendix low-code platform. An active community of over 300,000 developers has created over 950,000 applications – and counting.