App Builder Survey Report Part 2: 2025 Trends in App Development

It’s clear that the adoption of AI tools is inevitable, as 87% of tech leaders reported that their companies use these tools in their app development process.

This number will grow over the next year, as nearly half (45%) of the tech leaders that aren’t currently using AI say they are likely to start adopting the technology in 2025. Companies need to ensure their developers are skilled to use the technology as they invest more heavily in it.

Seventy-six percent (76%) of tech leaders believe that AI will make low-code tools more efficient, while only 16% think that AI will replace low-code development. The more developers recognize that AI is not meant to replace them—but make their lives easier—the more they can use it to drive efficiencies.

With the increased focus on AI, companies must keep pace with trends and ensure their teams have the skills to integrate AI into their app development process. This is putting a heavy focus on developers’ AI and machine learning skills as managers grow their teams.

Nearly all companies that use AI in app development processes also utilize AI tools for security purposes (99%).

Sixty-four percent (64%) use AI tools to conduct security assessments, 60% test code, 59% identify trends to detect security breaches, and 58% scan code for vulnerabilities.

This is especially important as nearly half (45%) of respondents say cybersecurity threats are one of their top challenges for 2025. The combination of low-code and AI is not just making app development more efficient, but also more secure.

Tech leaders agree that automation is the primary reason for using AI in app deployment. Nearly half of companies (40%) are leveraging AI tools to automate developers’ repetitive and time-consuming tasks. They’re also looking to AI to automate the creation of layouts and pages (34%), minimize manual errors (33%), and automate bug detection (32%).

By leveraging the power of AI and low-code, teams are able to efficiently tackle time-consuming tasks and free up time for developers to focus on more strategic and highly customizable aspects of their applications.

With such a priority on AI and machine learning skills, 30% of tech leaders say that hiring qualified developers and IT staff will be a top challenge this year.

Tech leaders reported that the most required developer skill in 2025 is AI and machine learning (71%), followed by cloud computing (53%). Problem solving (35%) and secure coding practices (34%) are also of consideration for tech leaders.