Appian: More application, less technology

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At its European customer event, the low-code provider Appian presented a series of enhancements and improvements to its platform that are designed to make it faster and easier to analyze data within applications. The focus is on Appian Autoscale and enhanced AI features.

Autoscale enables scaling up to six million processes per hour. This is around ten times higher than the previous benchmark. Appian thus enables the processing of complex processes in large numbers, such as the validation of claims in real time, the continuous monitoring of transactions or the assessment of credit risks. A detailed process history also helps to quickly identify and resolve any problems that arise to ensure smooth operations even when demand is high.

The platform update also offers a 40 percent improvement in the response time of the AI Copilot for Data Fabric as well as an expansion of the supported data sets to up to 250 types. The AI Copilot has been added to Process Insights AI, which enables faster creation of business-specific KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). There are also new AI features, such as the recognition of ad hoc events, suggestions for KPIs and consolidated evaluations of processes.

In addition to the low-code tool, the most important functions of the Appian platform include a case management suite, data visualization (Data Fabric) and, thanks to the embedding of Amazon Bedrock, the management of generative AI models (GenKI). Due to this application orientation, Appian is now positioning itself less as a technology provider and increasingly in the area of process automation. "The Process Company" is the current claim. Adam Glaser, Senior Vice President for Product Marketing at Appian, understands this to mean that "all automation functions, all employees, bots and AI functions must be brought under one roof so that efficient end-to-end processes can be created".

Wanted: a meta-platform for everything

With its new direction, Appian is right on trend. Gartner is already observing the emergence of meta-platforms that automate and orchestrate business processes end-to-end across various individual areas. The market researchers call this "Business Orchestration and Automation Technology" (BOAT ) and the features are a common set of functions from various technologies such as BPA (Business Process Automation), RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service). In addition, a BOAT platform offers special GenKI functions for autonomous agents that can perform a wide range of actions. These typically focus on time-driven development, workflow design, targeted content creation, extraction of unstructured data and orchestration of multiple LLMs. Appian already sees itself as a pioneer in this area. "We classify our offering as a BOAT platform, which also includes the comprehensive Data Fabric," says Thomas Lorenz, Director Solution Consulting at Appian.

Is the end of low code coming?

Appian's change in strategy not only makes sense in view of the increasing aggregation of business functions, but also because the underlying technologies are changing ever faster. Many experts expect dramatic changes in low code in particular, as GenKI allows programs to be created automatically based on natural language input. And this means that users will be able to create their own programs simply by speaking. "The question is, why use low code when you can create the complete code immediately with AI?" is the rhetorical question posed by Anand Kulkarni, CEO and founder of Crowdbotics. David Brooks, Senior Vice President and Lead Evangelist at Copado, agrees: "Programming will soon be fully automated," he predicts.

GenKI is not (yet) enough to replace low code

However, there are also assessments to the contrary, according to which such a development will not occur. The criticism is based on the fact that only 70 to 80 percent of the code generated by AI is correct, which requires a great deal of testing and correction work –, which in turn means that a large proportion of the savings are lost. Michael Beckley, co-founder and CTO of Appian, even says that "code generators are part of the problem, because faster app creation requires a powerful low-code platform so that everything can be connected and managed". IDC analyst Neil Ward sees another important aspect: program maintenance. "It's virtually impossible to present a program to an AI model and say, 'Here are a few adjustments to be made to the input, output and processing'," he argues.

More complex problems, more industries and an expanded data fabric

As a result, Appian believes that low code will continue to be the dominant technology in process automation. "We want to further expand our business capabilities, i.e. more automation, a better UI, more optimization, improved processes and new industries," says Appian SVP Glaser, explaining the roadmap. The company also wants to focus even more on large companies and complex digitalization. "We are continuing to focus on the financial services, insurance, pharmaceutical, life science and public sectors," says Sabine Bührer, Area Vice President Central Europe, at Appian. "However, it is important that we only tackle use cases that are complex, because this is where we can achieve the highest level of customer satisfaction and also generate significant added value relatively quickly," emphasizes Bührer. As far as future technology is concerned, Appian will be investing more in Data Fabric; for example, the provider is currently working on the native integration of Kafka streaming data sources.

(emw)