AI in Software Development: Trends and Future Insights
In The Forrester Wave™: Low-Code Development Platforms For Professional Developers, Q2 2025, OutSystems is named a Leader. I believe it highlights our continued commitment to innovation and excellence in low-code. In fact, Forrester says OutSystems is a "longtime poster child for low-code as a serious engineering tool."1
Download the Forrester Wave for the full write-up.
In addition, Forrester recognized our strategic goal of transcending traditional software market categories with a platform designed for application generation. The analysts also noted that our roadmap balances core improvements with AI enhancements and plans for technical differentiation, particularly in mobile development.
The report also notes our capabilities in UX development for custom B2C web and mobile experiences, as well as data modeling tools that stand out. It also noted how the application generation authoring experience provided by OutSystems Mentor shows promise in generating simple CRUD apps and dashboards entirely from prompts. We believe that the analysts expressed optimism about the future of Mentor for expanding development to broader audiences.
In this blog, I share my thoughts about why we are a Leader and how this Forrester Wave sheds light on the future of application development and the role of OutSystems in it.
Leading the way in app development innovation
Why do I believe OutSystems is a Leader in the latest Forrester Wave report? Because we continue to set high standards for helping our customers reshape how they build and deploy applications with our platform. This means that by choosing OutSystems, you partner with a company that consistently uses innovation in application development to change how you build, ship, integrate, and manage your enterprise software. For example, with OutSystems, you can use AI and low-code to radically transform, simplify, and accelerate application and agent delivery, as well as deploy agentic AI solutions.
Accelerating application delivery with generative AI and more makes us a leader
The 2025 Forrester Wave report highlights the growing importance of AI in application development. Our early investments in AI assistance have been recognized as one of our strategic strengths, something we began pursuing five years ago. As I mentioned earlier, Mentor can create the initial version of an app in minutes. Developers can then use natural language inputs to customize the app to suit their specific needs.
But Mentor doesn’t stop there. It checks and evaluates applications using automation to ensure sound architectures, security, performance, and maintainability. This AI-driven approach helps professional developers work faster while providing guidance that empowers non-coders and junior developers. If they want to add agents to their applications, AI Agent Builder enables them to do this without writing a single line of code.
Throughout this process, built-in AI-driven governance maintains enterprise-grade reliability, quality, and security, even at high velocity. OutSystems also supports robust version control, granular version comparison, CI/CD capabilities, and deep integrations with third-party tools for this purpose.
Delivering agentic AI with low-code is another hallmark of leadership
OutSystems Developer Cloud offers an alternative to existing agentic frameworks, no custom coding or agentic solutions needed. Our cloud-native platform combines low-code and agentic AI to accelerate the development and integration of complex AI agents into applications and workflows. Agentic AI in OutSystems Developer Cloud offers our customers the flexibility to add AI where it delivers the most value—across teams, workflows, and customer interactions. They can deploy AI automation in days, not months, and scale it as their needs evolve to achieve real, measurable impact.
AppGen: Forrester’s vision for the future of software development
The year 2025 is a turning point in application development. Agile, DevSecOps, and low-code have changed how software is built and engineered. Now, generative AI is accelerating the process even more, and agentic AI is emerging as a powerful approach to orchestrating DevSecOps. OutSystems is already bringing them together, so developers can avoid context switching and tool and framework fatigue. This shift breaks down barriers that have traditionally made certain projects too complex, too costly, or simply impossible.
What does this mean for the future of application development? Forrester says that application generation (AppGen) is the wave of the future. It is the ultimate story of converging methods and technologies. Here’s my take on what that means.
The rise of application generation platforms: My take
The introduction of generative AI three years ago opened the door to a new breed of AI-infused platforms that enable fast iteration for application generation. These platforms integrate the steps of software analysis, development, security, testing, and delivery by providing AI assistance for low-code (and even high-code) development across every step. I see these platforms as a natural progression from generating code snippets and using AI in isolated SDLC stages to creating complete applications with a few prompts and real-time collaboration among stakeholders. In a nutshell, they generate applications, not code, and the core authoring experience becomes a cycle of natural language prompting with visual iteration through interfaces, models, and domain-specific languages.
Real-time collaborative development
Imagine your entire team collaborating in real time. Product owners, subject matter experts, testers, and developers working together with AI assistance. They create graphics and code through integrated environments. Teams share ideas instantly on boards displaying flows, diagrams, and code. They review work on the fly, perform security checks, and approve changes immediately. I envision a time when SDLC becomes less visible as development happens in real time. All collaboration and assets will be generated instantly, tested, and verified by agentic AI operating behind the scenes.
Why application generation matters for your business
Application platforms have the power to compress and blur the traditional steps and roles of software development. They can democratize development further and faster, enable real-time collaboration, create dynamic personalized user experiences, and redefine not just software development but broad categories of software generally.
This isn't theoretical. The components for application generation already exist, with examples like logistics applications that manage sea containers. OutSystems has a head start in this space, and we are likely to evolve the processes and components of application generation over the next three years.
That’s because we are committed to leading this application development transformation, bringing together the best of low-code, AI assistance, and enterprise-grade capabilities.
This approach means we help teams deliver applications without compromise, from legacy modernization and workflow management solutions to engaging B2C mobile scenarios that integrate AR/VR and chatbots.
Conclusion
The 2025 Forrester Wave for Low-Code Development Platforms For Professional Developers makes it clear: the future of application development is here, and low-code platforms enhanced with AI capabilities drive it. Forrester’s recognition of OutSystems as a Leader in this space reaffirms our commitment to helping organizations thrive in this new era of application development.
By choosing OutSystems, you gain a partner dedicated to your success in building and deploying applications that drive business growth and innovation.
Ready to learn more about low-code and why OutSystems is a Leader in the Forrester Wave? Read The Forrester Wave: Low-Code Development Platforms for Professional Developers, Q2 2025.
1 The Forrester Wave™: Low-Code Development Platforms For Professional Developers, Q2 2025
