According to Gartner’s latest forecast, the global low-code development technology market is expected to reach $26.9 billion by 2023, a 19.6% increase from 2022. Now through 2026, “hyperautomation” and “composable business initiatives” will be key drivers of accelerated adoption of low-code technologies.

“Organizations are increasingly turning to low-code development techniques to meet the growing demand for rapid application delivery and highly customized automated workflows. Equipping professional IT developers and non-IT roles (business technicians) with a variety of low-code Code tools that enable organizations to achieve the level of digital capability and speed of delivery required in modern agile environments.”

Low-code application platforms (LCAPs) are projected to be the largest segment of the low-code development technologies market, growing by 2% by 20235%, reaching nearly $10 billion. While LCAP is the largest segment, Gartner expects Citizen Automation Development Platforms (CADP) to grow the fastest, growing 30.2% by 2023. Typical use cases for CADP include automating workflows, building web-based forms, bridging data and content across multiple software-as-a-service applications, and creating reports and data visualizations.

Developers outside of formal IT departments are forecast to account for at least 80 percent of the low-code development tool user base by 2026, up from 60 percent in 2021.Spending on software technologies that support hyperautomation will reach $720 billion by 2023. Some of this spending will go to low-code development technologies, including LCAP, iPaaS, RPA, CADP, and MXDP, to support process automation, integration, decision analysis, and more.

Investments in low-code technologies that support innovation and composable integration will also grow. Composable enterprises need to better reuse existing Packaged Business Capabilities (PBCs) to enable agile application development and create customized user experiences for new workflows and processes.

In addition, the Gartner Distinguished Vice President Analyst believes that low-code tools will not replace existing developer roles. “That’s probably the biggest misconception that low-code is about taking away developer jobs. It’s not about replacing all these different jobs at scale, it’s about recalibrating and retraining your workforce.” Still, how to get low-code strategies right and develop consistent rules governing where and when to apply the technology is still a work in progress.