The world of application development is a whirlwind of innovation. New technologies are constantly emerging, and the way we build and deploy applications is changing so fast that it’s not enough to look at what it will be like tomorrow: 

You need to keep an eye on what it’ll be like a few years down the line. 

By doing so, not only will you avoid motion sickness from all the twists and turns: You will be better prepared and technologically positioned to meet the demands of tomorrow. 

So, what trends will redefine application development by 2030? How will AI, cloud-native architectures and automation reshape how we build software? 

Let’s dive in and find out. 

Development will be democratised with self-service platforms

Application development is no longer the exclusive domain of seasoned coders. Get ready for a revolution where business users, citizen developers and even those with minimal coding experience can build sophisticated applications. This is the era of democratised development.

Low-code/no-code platforms are the driving force behind this shift – with intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces and pre-built components that simplify the development process.  

Need to integrate with a database? Drag and drop. Want to add user authentication? Click-click-click-done. 

This isn't about replacing skilled developers. It's about empowering a wider range of people to become “developers” (let’s put them within quotation marks for now). A business analyst building prototypes for new features, a marketer creating custom landing pages or a product manager quickly iterating on new ideas – all without writing a single line of code.

How this impacts our world:

• Apps will be built and deployed faster than ever before 
• Development will be cheaper – you don’t need specialised developers for every task
• Development will be more agile, quickly adjusting to changing business requirements 
• Non-technical users have the tools to create their own solutions

We’ll have AI-powered "digital architects"

You’ll soon have a new coding companion: the AI-powered digital architect. 

These are intelligent bots that can take on a wide range of coding tasks, from automating the mundane to generating innovative solutions.

It’s an AI assistant that can: 

• write code based on your specific requirements 
• optimise existing code for performance
• even identify potential bugs before they become problems

If you’re a human developer, these digital architects are not here to replace you. They will augment your capabilities and free you from tedious tasks so you can focus on higher-level design and problem-solving.

They do the grunt work, like building the scaffolding for your application. You, if you are a human architect, focus on the creative vision and intricate details. This collaboration leads to a new level of efficiency and productivity, allowing you to bring your ideas to life faster and more precisely.

Here's how AI-powered digital architects will revolutionise development:

• Repetitive coding tasks will be automated and your development cycles will be faster 
• You can optimise code for performance, readability and maintainability
• You will spot potential bugs and vulnerabilities early in the development process
• You will be freed up to focus on innovative solutions and complex problems

Cloud-native microservices are the foundation

Monolithic applications are becoming a relic of the past. The future belongs to applications built with independent, interchangeable components you can easily rearrange, replace and scale. This is the power of cloud-native microservices.

Microservices break down applications into smaller, self-contained units – like mini-apps working together towards a common goal. With this modular approach, you get unparalleled flexibility so you can update, scale and maintain individual components without impacting the entire system.

Containerisation takes this further, packaging each microservice with its dependencies and environment – like shipping mini-apps in self-sufficient containers, ensuring smooth execution across diverse cloud environments. This makes is so much simpler to deploy and manage applications.

Why microservices make the world a better place:

• You’re more efficient in your resource usage when you can scale individual microservices to handle traffic fluctuations
• If one microservice fails, the others continue running without interruption
• Since you develop, deploy and update components independently, you have a shorter time-to-market 
• You can easily adapt to changing business needs by adding, removing or updating microservices

CI/CD will be hyper-automated and with zero downtime

Manual deployments and stressful releases will soon be a distant memory. By 2030, CI/CD pipelines will be so automated and intelligent that they practically run themselves. This is the era of hyper-automation, where AI optimises every step of the process.

A code change will trigger an automatic process of building, testing and deploying the application to production without any human intervention. AI algorithms will analyse code, identify potential issues and even suggest improvements. This makes every release smooth, efficient and error-free.

Why we love this: 

• You can release new features and updates in minutes
• You keep human errors to an absolute minimum and catch bugs before they reach production
• As a developer, you will have far fewer tedious tasks, and can instead focus on innovation
• You can update applications seamlessly without disrupting the user experience

We’ll see the rise of serverless computing

Managing servers, configuring infrastructure and worrying about scaling capacity will become obsolete. In the serverless world, you simply write code and let the cloud handle the rest.

Serverless computing abstracts away the underlying infrastructure so you can focus solely on your application logic. You write functions to process data or define endpoints to build an API The cloud provider takes care of everything else, from resource provisioning to automatic scaling.

Examples of why this is good: 

• You can focus on writing code instead of managing infrastructure
• You can eliminate server management tasks and keep operational costs down
• Applications scale automatically based on demand, without manual intervention
• You can deploy applications quickly and easily when there is no infrastructure setup

Cybersecurity grows even bigger 

As cyberattacks will continue to become even more sophisticated, you need to make security a primary consideration throughout the entire application development lifecycle. 

Basic security measures are not enough anymore. You need a more holistic approach that includes:

• secure coding practices
• vulnerability assessments
• penetration testing
• continuous monitoring

Like any developer, you need to be equipped to identify and mitigate potential security risks. And security teams need to be actively involved throughout the whole development process. That’s the only way you can be sure security is woven into the fabric of the application – from the first design phase to deployment and beyond.

Why all this fuss?

• You protect user data- and protect yourself from expensive data breaches
• Users know you take security seriously and that they can trust you
• When you are cyber-attacked, it will have less of an impact and you can keep your business running 
• You’ll stay compliant, even when data protection and security regulations change over time

Programming languages will continue to evolve 

The languages we use to communicate with machines are constantly evolving. New languages and paradigms will continue to emerge and give us even greater expressiveness, efficiency and power for modern application development.

These new languages are designed to be more intuitive, concise and tailored to specific tasks. 

As a developer this is great. You’ll be able to express complex logic with less code, use the power of AI and machine learning and build applications that are more robust, scalable and maintainable.

How life will be easier with these new languages: 

• You will write code faster and more efficiently with expressive languages
• With better code quality, your applications will be more reliable and maintainable 
• You can do amazing things with AI and other advanced technologies, through specialised languages
• You can create a competitive advantage by embracing new languages and adapting to evolving trends

Let’s sum up

The future of application development is exciting. We're talking democratised development, AI coding assistants, hyper-automated deployments and the rise of serverless computing – it's a whole new world of building and deploying software.

You probably already are one but: To stay ahead, you need to be a lifelong learner. Only then can you use them to find new levels of productivity and innovation. 

And now you know a bit more about what to keep an eye on.