The Citizen Developer

A New Bumper Crop of Tools for the New-Age Citizen Developer

Seems it was only yesterday we were talking about the wide diversity of low-code/no-code development platforms for Citizen Developers to choose from. It was, actually, October 31, 2024 when we asked "Which Low-Code/No-Code (LCNC) Platform?"

Hope You Enjoyed That!

I hope you enjoyed that selection process, because it's now time to start it all over again. In February 2025 we discussed "The Implications of AI Agents for the Citizen Developer" and talked about how Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was predicting the end of traditional command-by-command applications being replaced by intelligent AI Agents. He wasn't the first, and will not be the last to make this forecast.

It seems there are many software providers who agree with him.

There is now an even greater variety of Agent-building platforms available to the Citizen Developer who wants to be among the first to shift from low-code/no-code application development to being a fully Agentic Citizen Developer.

No-Code AI Agent Builders

It may be easier and less jarring to make the transition from your current drag-and-drop application platform to a no-code drag-and-drop AI Agent Building platform.

We've already discussed the Mentor AI platform from OutSystems in April 2025's "Uniting Citizen Developers with ProDevs and AI", and now here are a few others for your consideration:

Although n8n seems to be getting more attention in the press, it's way too early to evaluate the relative popularity of these platforms, so follow the links and take a look.

No Code! No Drop! No Drag!

Perhaps you're ready to move farther faster in your Citizen Developer career.

Here are some of the most highly-rated AI Agent Builder platforms that don't involve drop-and-drag:

Others that might be characterized as low-code may require more technical sophistication, but worth taking a look at:

How Do I Choose?

Some of this process will be very familiar to anyone who's ever selected software of any kind... ever. Obviously, you need to begin by evaluating your current state, along with a clear definition of what you want to accomplish by adding this new platform.

Goals:

What are your objectives? What use cases can you immediately define that can be your earliest AI Agent projects?

People:

Since we're talking about upgrading your Citizen Developers from application developers you have a history of projects already completed. Use them to determine how prepared your people are, and which are your best candidates to become your first AI Agent Builders.

Products:

There will be many products to choose from, with more new ones arriving daily, and that will continue for a while! But here are some of the criteria you should be considering in your evaluation:

  • Data – This is the most important consideration of all when doing anything involving machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). The better the quality of the data, the better the results from your agentic experience.
  • Features – Just like the LLMs that drive AI, the players are in the midst of a Features War. They'll keep adding new features and duplicating their competition's features for some time to come, so what you see today may not be what you see tomorrow.
  • Ease of Use – Easy to use is easy to say, but you need to determine how long the learning curve will be. The people who will be using these tools have plenty of other work to do, so you need to keep the learning load as low as possible.
  • Hands-On Evaluation Opportunity – How long is the period during which you may test out the platform at no charge? You should not have to pay to evaluate each potential platform.
  • Integration and Customization – As with any software product, the more it integrates with other popular platforms the more flexible your world becomes.
  • Scalability – Can the AI Agents you build continue to serve as your organization grows? Will performance degrade as the community gets larger?
  • Support – Especially in the early stages, you'll need someone you can depend upon to help you past any learning hurdles. How quickly do they respond? How knowledgeable are their support people? How friendly are they? How easy to deal with?

Reputation:

Obviously, the large players are more knowable, but even the smaller players have already developed relationships with existing users. Ask for references and speak with them.

NLP

One of the acronyms you'll keep coming across during this search is "NLP" which stands for Natural Language Processing. Consider this to be the panacea, the ultimate interface. It suggests that you can simply speak to the AI Agent Builder platform—converse with it, you might say—and it will produce the agents of your dreams. This is not far-fetched at all, and in fact most developers are already promising it.

What Else Would You Like to Know?

As we head into this new agentic world together, I'd really like to know what you'd like to know more about. What are your questions? What are your observations? How can Citizen Developers like you accelerate their progress? Email me at [email protected] and I'll feature as many of them as possible in future postings of this column.

About the Author

Technologist, creator of compelling content, and senior "resultant" Howard M. Cohen has been in the information technology industry for more than four decades. He has held senior executive positions in many of the top channel partner organizations and he currently writes for and about IT and the IT channel.

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