The Year of Hyperautomation and Low Code – InApps Technology 2022

Here’s a safe prediction about 2022: Digital transformation spurred by the shift to hybrid and remote work will continue, and in many cases accelerate.

COVID-19 was a wake-up call for companies that dragged their heels on digitization. Suddenly, organizations large and small were forced to speed up their adoption of digital platforms to ensure they could operate efficiently.

As we move past pandemic-triggered transformation into the next wave of digitization, I expect exciting developments in two areas of technology, both of which allow teams to operate smarter and faster: low-code platforms and hyperautomation.

The Rise of Hybrid Work Will Drive Low-Code Adoption

Thanks to the rise of hybrid work, “work” isn’t a place, but rather an experience.

This change isn’t just semantics. For many organizations, it marks a fundamental shift in the way they approach the workplace. Historically, most firms focused mainly on the in-person employee experience.

Today, they must address the digital side as well, and ensure parity between both. Creating a consistently engaging experience in people’s work processes is critical to efficiency, retention and employee satisfaction.

Low-code development will play a central role in this experience-focused era of work.

Employees’ natural desire for low-friction experiences will empower more of them to build and adopt low-code apps that simplify and streamline their work lives. This shift will put a premium on app experience frameworks that can deliver familiarity to end-users.

More Companies Will Invest in Formal Citizen Development Programs

It’s no surprise that low-code automation has risen to the top of the CIO agenda recently. Low-code platforms put the tools of process innovation in the hands of the people closest to the problems. The result is heightened productivity and accelerated digital transformation.

Adoption of these tools will grow and become more structured in 2022. As more companies recognize the power of low-code development, many will launch formalized citizen developer programs that empower their employees with tools to help them experiment and deliver value.

In tandem, we’ll also see more firms introduce low-code development guardrails, such as platform-level security and access controls. The result will be low-code apps that combine enterprise-level scalability with enterprise-level security and compliance.

Hyperautomation Will Inch Further into the Mainstream

While many organizations are still kicking the tires on process automation, forward-thinking firms are already getting excited about what comes next: hyperautomation.

To be clear, hyperautomation isn’t one initiative or tool on its own. It is the result of an organization’s approach to automation, one that combines a comprehensive mix of technologies including machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, low-code capabilities and more.

The result is an ongoing effort to seek out, automate and optimize business processes across the enterprise.

By designing systems that allow one automated process to flow directly into the next one, firms are unlocking exciting new opportunities to optimize their systems and processes. Given that cross-enterprise processes are the backbone of digital enterprises, there’s incredible power in automated systems that can constantly optimize the way people, processes and technology interact.

Over the next year, we’ll begin to see more enterprises implement AI into their processes at scale, resulting in more intelligent decision-making, recommendations and optimization.

2022: Another Pivotal Year for Digital Transformation

The past two years have been a wake-up call for firms without a clear digital transformation strategy. Finally, we’re seeing more organizations recognize that developments in tech like low-code platforms and automation are effective bulwarks against the tremendous uncertainty and change of business today.

If recent years have been driven by reactivity, the next few will be marked by a proactive embrace of emerging technologies. The result: more resilient companies and happier, more efficient employees.

Photo by Ruiyang Zhang from Pexels.