{"id":195436,"date":"2024-03-04T11:45:08","date_gmt":"2024-03-04T11:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/?p=195436"},"modified":"2024-03-04T12:30:19","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T12:30:19","slug":"interview-with-servicenow-low-code-and-genai-will-reduce-the-developer-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/interview-with-servicenow-low-code-and-genai-will-reduce-the-developer-shortage","title":{"rendered":"Interview with ServiceNow: \u2018Low-Code & GenAI Will Reduce the Developer Shortage\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
What are we lacking right now? Skilled developers<\/strong>, with research from market researcher IDC, with a predicted possible shortage of four million developers over the next few years<\/a>.<\/p>\n Other sources go higher, suggesting the developer shortage is 40 million globally<\/a> and that the overall impact of slower software development on the economy could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars in years to come.<\/p>\n Whether you consider the lower-end or higher-end estimates more likely, we are hitting a wall in terms of what the world needs from software development due to a shortage of skilled developers to deliver it.<\/p>\n There may be two interlinked emerging technologies that can at least lessen the demand \u2014 the rise of low- and no-code platforms (which allows non-developers to cook up software) and generative AI<\/a> stepping in to guide and write code.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an opinion shared by Nvidia CEO, Jensen, who believes the next generation should not focus on coding, as AI will take over the majority of the work (YouTube<\/a>).<\/p>\n We sat down with Jithin Bhasker, General Manager and Vice President for the App Engine business at ServiceNow, to figure out how much no-code may impact a stretched, capacity-filled industry.<\/p>\n Over the course of his career, he\u2019s led various initiatives to build IT\/developer products and tools and has led strategic mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining ServiceNow, Jithin worked at Google, Adobe, Dell, and other B2B startups, leading teams in product, corporate strategy, and engineering.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/div><\/div>\n Q:\u00a0 <\/strong>The developer shortage continues to challenge businesses. How do you see this impact in the IT landscape, particularly in things like project delivery and innovation in the workplace?<\/i><\/p>\n A: <\/strong>As leaders, we’ve all struggled with the shortage of engineers, and the talent shortage continues to be a problem. We are seeing a huge demand for highly skilled engineers with the skills to fine-tune the custom-built large language models<\/a> (LLMs) that are the engine for everything artificial intelligence<\/a> (AI) uses at the back end.<\/p>\n According to the US Department of Labor, software engineering is among the top four highly in-demand roles and skills<\/a>.<\/p>\n It’s projected that over the next ten years, there will be a need for at least half a million developers and engineers just in the US to support the growth in demand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is without considering the amount of augmentation and enablement that generative AI<\/a> would do.<\/p>\n I foresee these numbers doubling in terms of the market for talent who could effectively drive this fine-tuning and refining of some of these models with LLMs all in place as well.<\/p>\n Q:<\/strong> Citizen development is another big buzzword at the moment. Can you explain the concept’s significance in today’s tech-driven business environment?<\/i><\/p>\n A:<\/strong> A recent economist survey stated that every company has at least 6 to 12 months of project backlogs in IT on average. Once again, that’s primarily because of the proper skill set and talent shortage. As a result, IT leaders and CIOs recognize the need to delegate this development work to the edge of the operations and the business processes.<\/p>\n The best people who could effectively automate, build applications, and custom-build all these digitization processes are at the forefront of those operations. You could be in sales, marketing, legal, finance, or anywhere.<\/p>\n But every CIO is looking at how we could delegate these opportunities to find ways to make the processes automated, digitized, and faster with the help of platforms like low-code<\/a> and no-code platforms. It’s now driving the boundaries with the help of GenAI.<\/p>\n When you combine the two, that’s the combination of GenAI and the low-code, you’re enabling anyone to build, automate and digitize processes. The only limitation is your imagination or the ability to identify the actual pain point or the bottleneck within the process or the business operations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, now you are giving that ownership directly to someone at the edge of those business processes rather than highly depending on an IT or a developer.<\/p>\n Q: <\/strong>What skills will be more crucial for professionals to train, monitor, and optimize new AI solutions effectively?<\/i><\/p>\n A: <\/strong>For a seasoned developer, brand new language models are introduced every other month or so. For example, after the buzz of OpenAI<\/a> and ChatGPT<\/a>, we saw Llama<\/a> getting so much more prevalent, and now we are seeing models like Mistral<\/a> getting so much more prevalent.<\/p>\n So, as a seasoned developer, it’ll be great for you to fine-tune or tune into all this rapid emergence happening in the market so that you are keeping yourself updated about some of the advantages and efficiencies that are coming up with this model.<\/p>\n Our CIOs or IT teams have started leveraging things like text-to-code within our company. They’re immediately seeing an efficiency of 30% more. Imagine you are saving that 30% capacity, which goes back to my earlier talk track about the shortage of developers.<\/p>\n As and when these models are getting more and more fine-tuned and more imaginative, you see a possibility of a seasoned developer being faster multiple X times in terms of designing, developing, deploying, testing, and deploying the code in a much better fashion.<\/p>\n Fundamentally, it’s about making seasoned developers multiple times faster to bring all this together, from design to development to testing to deployment.<\/p>\n But for someone who is not a skilled coder, you’re now reducing the entry barrier for the person to be able to get started with building things rather than in the old way where you are first trying to define the process.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Then you transfer that to an IT person to look at all these different systems, which they need to integrate and stitch together components that need to be brought together.<\/p>\n We are even looking at things like \u201ctext to test,\u201d where you will run much faster cycles for your automation testing before you deploy into production. We see efficiencies across the different skill sets of developers, whether you’re new to coding or you’re a seasoned developer.<\/p>\nAbout Jithin Bhasker<\/span><\/h2>\n
Jithin Bhasker is the general manager and vice president of the App Engine business at ServiceNow.<\/p>\n
Key Takeaways<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Challenges of the Developer World Today<\/span><\/h2>\n
Upskilling Knowledge in a World of New Tools<\/span><\/h2>\n
The \u2018Democratization\u2019 of Coding Skills<\/span><\/h2>\n