Non-tech professionals to build majority technology products by 2024: Gartner

80% of technology products and services will be built by non-technology professions by 2024, says research firm Gartner. It expects high-profile technology launches from non-tech companies to proliferate over the next 12 months.

Rajesh Kandaswamy, research vice-president at Gartner, said digital business is treated as a team sport by CEOs and no longer the sole domain of the IT department. “Growth in digital data, low-code development tools and artificial intelligence (AI) assisted development are among the many factors that enable the democratization of technology development beyond IT professionals.”

Kandaswamy said the availability of business technologists provides new sources of innovation and the ability to get work done. “Thus, technology and service providers will need to extend their sourcing of ideas and technology development into new communities, whether they are based on citizen development, their own customer communities or other sources.”

Gartner analysts said the rapid expansion of cloud services, digital business initiatives and remote services opened the door for new possibilities in integrations and optimization. Moreover, experts believe that technology encroachment into all areas of business and among consumers creates demand for products and services outside of IT departments. The buyers’ needs do not always fit neatly into offerings from traditional providers. And this has been compounded by the COVID-19 crisis, which has only expanded the amount and type of use cases technology is needed to fulfill.

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In 2023, Gartner anticipates that $30 billion in revenue will be generated by products and services that did not exist pre-pandemic. COVID-19 has no doubt reduced barriers for those outside of IT to create technology-based solutions by providing an entry point for anyone who was able to serve pandemic-induced needs. These include non-technology professionals within enterprises or business technologists, citizen developers, data scientists and AI systems that generate software.