OutSystems expands AI and ML initiative

OutSystems has introduced outsystems.ai, a new program that advances the company’s mission to bring the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AL/ML) to software development. The project introduces a new outsystems.ai domain, names a new head of the OutSystems AI/ML group, and launches new and ongoing research into AI-assisted software development.

The outsystems.ai project builds on the company’s previously announced “Project Turing” AI initiative. Project Turing, named for the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence Alan Turing, established a new AI Centre of Excellence in Lisbon, committed 20 percent of the company’s overall R&D budget to AI/ML, and developed partnerships with industry experts, tech leaders, and universities to drive original research and innovation.

“Eight months ago, we announced our bold vision for Project Turing,” said OutSystems CEO, Paulo Rosado. “Today’s launch of outsystems.ai moves the needle even further toward reducing the complexity of development and changing enterprise software with exciting new and ongoing research into AI-assisted development.”

Heading up outsystems.ai is Antonio Alegria, an expert in computer engineering and machine learning, and a veteran at designing and building products to leverage AI.

“The outsystems.ai initiative illustrates the commitment OutSystems is making to explore new technologies that improve software development processes,” said Alegria, head of OutSystems AI group. “We look forward to building on Project Turing, which aims to continue the evolution of intuitive development started by the Turing programming language. Humans speaking the language of computers has brought technology a long way, but as machines continue to change and their ubiquity in our daily lives increases, we need to evolve bi-directional communication in a way that is more natural for everyone.”

Alegria’s team at OutSystems has several academic initiatives underway. A partnership with Dr. Ruben Martins, a renowned research scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, is exploring program synthesis, which is the idea that computers can write programs automatically. OutSystems also has other ongoing research projects with researchers at IST and Técnico Lisboa.

Just this month, Gartner identified AI-Driven Development as a Top 10 strategic technology trend for 2019. According to Gartner, “By 2022, at least 40 percent of new application development projects will have AI co-developers on their team.”

Further, Gartner states, “The market is rapidly shifting from an approach in which professional data scientists must partner with application developers to create most AI-enhanced solutions to a model in which the professional developer can operate alone using predefined models delivered as a service. This provides the developer with an ecosystem of AI algorithms and models, as well as development tools tailored to integrating AI capabilities and models into a solution. Another level of opportunity for professional application development arises as AI is applied to the development process itself to automate various data science, application development and testing functions.”

OutSystems also announced its Early Access Program (EAP) for outsystems.ai’s new application development AI co-pilot, the developer’s intelligent right hand for faster, more intuitive development. EAP participants will get early access to outsystems.ai applied research that can accelerate application development by 25 percent. Through usage and feedback, EAP participants will also help OutSystems improve the accuracy of outsystems.ai and influence the roadmap of outsystems.ai moving forward.