Low-code automation is akin to LEGO building blocks. LEGO allows your imagination to run wild; you can build entire castles, trains or even a scaled version of the RMS Titanic with one humble brick — without needing advanced engineering or crafting knowledge.

The same concept applies to low-code automation — it’s really that simple. You’re using pre-made components (bricks) to construct automations without needing extensive coding experience.

In both cases, the construction process doesn’t become a hindrance; instead, it promotes creativity and problem-solving and enables a wide range of people with various expertise to build something functional and valuable.

What Is Low-Code Automation?

Low-code automation is automation software that uses visual aids in a visual development environment, like a graphical user interface (GUI), to create automations. This user-friendly environment with a small learning curve makes it easier and faster for people to design, test, build and deploy their automations.

Many of these platforms even offer pre-built components and templates that can be edited if you have some coding skills, hence the “low” in low-code.

You will often see people who use low-code automation tools be called citizen developers. The term is used to describe individuals within an organization who may not have a formal coding or software background but use low-code tools to create automations that address specific business needs.

It also means that organizations reduce time spent to develop process automations, and instead can focus on other priorities. An example of a low-code solution is the SS&C | Blue Prism® UX Builder.

Why you should use low-code:

• Quick time-to-market.
• Easy and seamless integration with current infrastructure.
• Provides your team with the ability to self-serve.
• Many solutions have pre-built workflows and templates.
• Easy to scale.

Augmenting low-code with AI

The introduction of AI solutions will enable low-code platforms to offer more conversational code generation. Some platforms now even offer generative AI capabilities to help generate desired code. This will help speed up development and unlock even more possibilities for regular users to create business process automations and reap the benefits from AI automation.

Low-code vs no-code automation

Low-code and no-code automation, or zero code, are similar, but no-code takes it one step further: it requires absolutely no coding or software knowledge. It relies heavily on visuals and pre-built interfaces and functions for people to build their automations.

Think of it like this: no-code means users can use simple, pre-built features to create their automations; but for anything more complex or specific, some level of programming knowledge is required and that’s where low-code steps in.

What’s the difference between low-code automation and RPA?

Robotic process automation (RPA) is the use of software robots to automate manual, repetitive, error-prone tasks usually carried out by a human. RPA doesn’t require custom workflow or application development. It automates existing processes. Its relation to low-code? They’re both technologies aimed at improving efficiency and automating tasks — just with different capabilities and focuses.

RPA is well-suited to automate structured, quality data. That’s where it thrives. But if you have a legacy system that needs integration or if data in the system is unstructured, it can get a little challenging to use RPA alone and see its full benefits. That’s where you could integrate low-code automation.

Low-code easily works with legacy systems and unstructured data to rebuild outdated systems in a cost-effective, faster and simpler way than hiring a team of  RPA developers to build custom automations every time.

	RPA	Low-code
Definition	The use of RPA bots to automate repetitive business tasks that a human would usually perform.	Intuitive, visual approach to building simple and complex workflow automations for end-to-end processes.
Focus	Automate structured, quality data within the boundaries of existing systems.	The creation and deployment of automations with the ability to integrate with databases and third-party business applications.
Complexity	Suitable for straightforward tasks.	Suitable for simple and complex tasks.
Users	Primarily technical users, IT-driven.	Citizen developers.

What Are the Benefits of Low-Code Automation?

Low-code automation provides a wide range of benefits for organizations and individuals:

• Increase development speed: The pre-built and reusable components in low-code development platforms make it easier to develop automations than using traditional coding methods.
• Reduce development cost: Minimizing the use of extensive custom coding and development results in cost savings.
• Empower non-tech users: Low-code platforms are incredibly user-friendly with drag-and-drop interfaces, making it possible for a wide range of non-tech users to actively participate in business process automation (which can also put less of a burden on IT teams).
• Enhance productivity: Creating automations with low-code becomes more simple and automations are deployed faster. Automation production is more efficient, which translates to employees having more free time to focus on the strategic aspects of work.
• Integration capabilities: Several low-code automation tools offer integrations with commonly used applications, making it easier to connect to your existing systems and databases for efficiency and consistency. For example, with generative AI solutions, so you can speed up development processes.
• Supports scalability: Low-code automations are easy to adjust and adapt to meet the digital transformation demands of your organization. As your organization grows, so can your automations.
• Increase innovation: Friendly user experiences and intuitive platforms encourage business users to experiment and innovate quickly and with ease. They can build applications they need at the time, without relying and waiting on IT.
• Improve governance and compliance: Many low-code platforms include built-in governance features to help organizations maintain control over their automations and adhere to regulations.

Use Cases for Low-Code Automation

Low-code automation helps empower employees to take control of their business processes and automate workflows and tasks. How can you put low-code automation into action?

Here are some department examples:

Human resources

• Employee onboarding: HR departments can create automations to guide new hires through paperwork, training and orientation tasks. With digital process automation, you can then link this automation to other automated processes to make the entire new starter journey as efficient as possible, such as scheduling meetings with teams and provisioning.

• Payroll management: Low-code automations can be created to quickly simplify the payroll process, integrating with your payment provider or payslip-generating software.

IT

• Ticket management: Low-code can be added to IT automation for ticket and incident management. Without code, IT staff create automation to handle ticket creation, categorization and user assignment.

• Self-service support: Many technical issues don’t require IT support, low-code can help design a self-service solution that handles the most common requests like password resets. Add in gen AI capabilities and organizations can build a smart self-service help desk assistant.

Customer support

• Live chat and chatbots: Customer support agents can quickly create chatbots and automated follow-ups with low-code tools to answer common customer queries. With gen AI capabilities, chatbots can answer questions more naturally.

• Customer support management: Like with IT, you can create an automated customer support ticket system with low-code. This helps the team log and categorize incoming tickets, and automation can assign them to the appropriate department or available agent.

Here are some industry examples:

Insurance

• Claims processing: Low-code can help streamline the claims processing workflow, reducing manual data entry and accelerating claims approvals.

• Customer support tickets: You can use low-code automation to generate, manage and escalate customer support tickets to ensure timely response and issue resolution.

Healthcare

• Appointment scheduling: Healthcare automation supports patient appointment scheduling, reminders and follow-ups with low-code. You can also then ensure patient confidentiality and improve patient experiences.

• Referrals: Healthcare users can also create automations to help process patient referrals, including setting up reminders and follow-ups.

Banking and finance

• Customer onboarding: Similar to HR, customer onboarding can be automated quickly and easily with low-code, integrating with digital forms and workflows for Know Your Customer (KYC) checks and identity verification.

• Loan processing: Create automations that help speed up loan processing, from application to submission and credit checks to disbursement. Low-code helps improve processing times and customer experience.

Why Use a Low-Code Automation Platform?

The bottom line is that low-code automation platforms help businesses increase their efficiency and agility in the competitive market. They help empower employees to adapt quickly, streamline operations and innovate more effectively by breaking the barriers and making automation more accessible to everyone.

When you have a citizen development model helping create the automations, you’re also able to reallocate IT resources towards higher priorities and more strategic initiatives that require complex code or software development. It's a win-win situation.

Even better, low-code can be added throughout your enterprise automation solution. That is, when you create unified, end-to-end automated workflows that connect disparate operations. In other words, you’re not just tunnel-visioned to automate one process, you can use low-code as part of a larger strategy to connect all processes.

Can low-code be used for larger businesses?

Yes. Low-code automation can be used by businesses of any size to quickly develop and automate processes without needing extensive coding skills — making it valuable for small and larger businesses.

Who uses low-code automation?

Low-code is used by a wide range of users, including developers, IT teams and business users with little to no coding experience. It helps speed up task automation across different departments.

Is RPA considered low-code?

You can use low-code tools to create and add RPA into your processes, but RPA itself is not low-code. For example, say you want to add RPA to automate repetitive tasks that must run on employee desktops but you don’t have the coding knowledge. Here, you can use a desktop automation solution that includes a low-code interface to build your automation and deploy it on the desktop.

When is low-code automation ideally suited?

Low-code automation is ideal when there are limited IT resources, a shortage of developers, budget constraints or when you need quick, minor modifications. It can also be applied across various use cases beyond these scenarios.

Getting Started With Low-Code

Low-code applications, platforms and tools are only getting smarter and more advanced — especially with the mainstream adoption of AI — making it even easier for people to create the automations they want and need.

They are transforming how resources are used: freeing up IT teams from routine tasks and offering employees a chance to innovate. Those who are using low-code are seeing unparalleled strategic advantages as they are more adaptable, creative and streamlined.

Get in touch to understand our low-code automation solutions today.