Daniel Parkhurst
Will ChatGPT replace Mendix?
A friend recently asked me if I believed development in Mendix would be replaced by ChatGPT’s (or any AI’s) ability to write code. I was caught off-guard by the question because I had not yet thought about it. But after thinking about it my answer is no. (ChatGPT’s answer to this question is the image for this article).
Why?
Mendix is already doing what ChatGPT does for development only much more holistically. The Mendix developer is able to use the pre-built widgets to build code behind the scenes without the developer ever needing to read, much less understand that code. They are using their reasoning and knowledge of the Mendix toolset to create an application. This makes Mendix the perfect tool for business analysts by the way. They already excel at understanding the business needs, but now they no longer need to wait on an already over-utilized and understaffed development team.
There is no longer a need to spend years learning a programming language to build applications.
ChatGPT’s code generating capabilities are extremely impressive. I would be a little worried if I were a Python or C# developer or any “traditional” developer. Give ChatGPT an idea for a program and it will build it or get 90% there. It is really jaw-dropping. On the other hand, nothing can replace the creativity and problem-solving capacity of the human mind. It will still take a human to ideate a new application and piece together any number of functions produced by AI in a meaningful way.
Ultimately application development exists to achieve a business result. We are not developing for the sake of development. Frankly there is just no longer a need to spend years writing and maintaining hundreds of thousands of lines of code. A smart business will end those days as soon as possible. Mendix and ChatGPT both enable the developer in a similar way to produce faster results for business sake.
Interestingly, Feb 1, Cap Gemini released a ChatGPT connector for Mendix.