No-Code, Low-Code, Dead Code

The generative AI cull is coming for Appian, Quickbase, and Salesforce Lightning

No code low code dead code

No-code/Low-code tools sold themselves as a revolution that would turn everyone into a developer. Drag, drop, deploy—no more begging IT for a tiny workflow fix.

Then generative AI showed up—and exposed the truth: NC/LC was a decade-old workaround for a problem that no longer exists.

The promise vs. the reality

NC/LC sold “citizen developers” an abstraction layer just shallow enough to feel empowering and just sticky enough to upsell pro features and enterprise lock-in. That trade made sense when hand-coding was the only other option.

But now? AI-native builders—Replit’s Ghostwriter, Builder.io’s AI Builder, Bryter AI—take a plain-English brief (“Build me a vacation rental app with Stripe and a dashboard”) and return a runnable, portable codebase in minutes. No vendor scripting language. No proprietary hosting. No $200-per-seat tax.

If you’re Appian, Quickbase, or Salesforce Lightning, that’s not competition. That’s extinction.

Death watch: who falls first

1) The “PowerPoint MVP” platforms

Bubble still charms hobbyists. But when AI-native tools deploy production-grade apps without Bubble’s learning curve, its ceiling drops to the floor.

2) The proprietary lock-in specialists

Salesforce Lightning built its castle here. It didn’t expect the moat to drain overnight.

The Night the Lights Went Out on Salesforce Lightning

Lightning thrived by binding custom apps tightly to Salesforce—great for control, miserable for portability. That worked when the choice was “stable lock-in” vs. shadow-IT chaos.

Then AI-native builders arrived. They could:

• Generate Lightning-grade UIs without touching Salesforce.

• Auto-wire external services and still call Salesforce APIs from outside the walled garden.

• Deploy to AWS, Azure, or Vercel—bypassing Lightning licenses entirely.

The blackout moment:

The aftermath:

• Q1 2026: CFOs order “Lightning exit strategies.”

• Q2 2026: Salesforce discounts to keep logos; margins bleed.

• 2027: Lightning adoption turns net-negative; the line shifts to quiet “legacy support” while the bet moves to Einstein AI.

Appian: A slow-motion autopsy

Old moat: Prebuilt integrations, process modelers, big-company governance—catnip for 2017 CIOs.
Now: AI-native competitors replicate that in plain English—without the walled garden.

Bolt-on AI error: Appian’s “AI Skills” wrap commodity models in dated UX. You’re still dragging widgets instead of telling an AI, “Build and deploy this workflow.”

Quarter-by-quarter collapse:

• Q1–Q2 2025: Enterprises pilot AI-native builders; see 5× faster deployments.

• Q3 2025: First defections; procurement flags TCO gaps.

• Q4 2025: Dev backlash over weak export paths.

• 2026: Renewal attrition accelerates; messaging pivots to “trusted legacy.”

• 2027: R&D trims, PE circles, maintenance mode.

Quickbase: The quiet suffocation

Quickbase thrived on department-led fixes. Today, AI-native platforms spin up compliant, integrated apps from a prompt.

The trap: Proprietary schema, painful exports, gated integrations.

Quarter-by-quarter collapse:

• Q2 2025: IT quietly replaces Quickbase pilots with AI-native equivalents.

• Q3–Q4 2025: Department heads balk at renewals as cheaper, portable options arrive.

• 2026: Customer base splits—regulated holdouts vs. defectors.

• 2027: Growth flatlines; Quickbase recedes into compliance-heavy niches.

The AI shakeout lesson

We’ve seen this movie. Early “AI” tools—closed, shallow, gimmicky—died on contact with reality. Appian, Quickbase, and Lightning are replaying the tape. AI isn’t their engine—it’s their hood ornament.

That’s not innovation. That’s inertia.

Who survives

• AI-first interface: The prompt is the product.

• Export by default: Full, portable code, not hostage widgets.

• Host-agnostic: Run it anywhere—cloud, edge, on-prem.

• Dual-track UX: Citizen devs and pros, no ceremony.

• Self-cannibals: Willing to kill the old UX before the market does.

The real problem? The NC/LC middle class—too big to pivot fast, too small to dictate terms—is about to be gutted. Lightning’s lights already flickered. Appian will bleed out quarter by quarter. Quickbase will suffocate quietly.

The tide isn’t coming. It’s here. And it isn’t lifting all boats. It’s choosing which ones to sink.