Recent years brought shifts in the software development landscape. Not to mention the economy. There are emerging trends that are rapidly taking over the business, making the process of creating digital products more complex and demanding. That’s why we decided to publish the article, embedding software development trends in the wider context. How can you benefit from tectonic changes and what elevates the development process today?

The background

It is estimated that legacy systems cost businesses $2.6 trillion globally. Each year. 70% of IT budgets are consumed by the maintenance requirements alone. We call this cost “technical debt”. It’s carried by legacy applications and teams that are focused on keeping the drip alive, rather than growing businesses, and developing new software solutions. The market for modernizing legacy systems is expected to grow by over 70% to $54.8 billion by 2028.

Also, tech stacks have become overly complex. Obsolete technologies, old development models, years of hot fixes, cybersecurity risks and complicated test environments took the toll on teams, businesses and products alike. Companies now struggle to digitize processes and rapidly scale applications. Existing technical dept and these issues sum up and build unnecessary complexity. This often leads to longer project timelines.

That’s why companies are looking for vendors, models, and solutions. That’s why we decided to bring you this piece.

1. Increased demand for Software as a Service (SaaS) model. Companies are looking for sustainable business models and their applications and platforms reflect that. The selling process went from sales to revenue streams, where users are charged fairly small but periodical fees. The market appreciates the shift. According to Panintelligence in 2023 alone, there were 49 fintech SaaS acquisitions.

There are many successful fintech software companies out there. Like Billtrust, an app focused on invoicing, e-billing, EBPP, EIPP, B2B, payment applications, and AR automation. They are noted for processing more than US$1 trillion in invoice dollars in the past few years.

Another good example is HighRadius. This is a fintech SaaS company that uses autonomous systems based on artificial intelligence to assist businesses and companies in automating their bank accounts. The companies can process payments automatically, reducing the time consumed from billing to the final payment. 

2. Growing capabilities of AI will drive the growth of fintech and healthtech apps. Generative AI took the economy by storm, but getting images in seconds is not the major achievement and focus of specialists. Companies use AI tools to analyze and review the code, enhance security, test and debug, and even write code. This is exactly what we do here, at Code & Pepper. We understand that the AI revolution is an evolution. Of software development processes, scaling companies, enhancing applications’ offering to customers.

3. Hiring developers with AI skills. Because we understand the previous shift, we hire only the best on the market. That’s why we have developed a talent identification methodology, that screens candidates and let us hire only top 1.6% developers out there. You can read more about human-ai centaur developers here.

According to researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, there’s a high chance that AI will replace software developers as early as 2040. In this recent study… oh, wait, that’s right. The study was taken in 2017. We have 2024 and nothing has happened. That’s because AI is not able to replace true talent. It can serve as a tool or a set of tools. Never an ultimate solution.

There are fintech companies out there that understand that view. Like Capitolis, which uses machine learning and artificial intelligence for trade management services for investors. Capitolis’ technologies help in predictive market analysis and address every capital market constraint in equities, foreign exchange markets, and more. Their services help investors optimize their portfolio.

Another example is Socure. Their high-end technology offers the most accurate predictive analysis backed up with artificial intelligence and machine learning. They use these technologies for verifying identities in real-time.

4. Cybersecurity is one of the leading topics among business owners. The sophistication of cyberattacks forced many CEOs to take proactive, not only reactive measures. Today, the emphasis is put on DevSecOps, Zero Trust architecture, increased use of encryption (homomorphic encryption, for example), and cybersecurity mesh. 

Each of them provides an additional layer of security and trust. It helps to create responsive and adaptable security infrastructure, capable of handling the dynamic nature of modern cyber threats.

5. Further growth of serverless computing (FaaS). Although this topic is not new (and we have spoken about it a few years ago) is seems to gain even more traction. Serverless computing, or Function as a Service (FaaS) utilizes AWS Lambda allows developers to build and run applications and services without managing infrastructure, leading to more efficient and cost-effective development processes. 

Thanks to AWS services you can elevate your business. FaaS solutions, often spoken about as event-driven architecture, automatically trigger execution in response to requests and adjusts resource use as needed. Its scalability and responsiveness simplify the development process, particularly suited for high-traffic applications.

Benefits? Lowers costs, reduced time to production, simplified scalability, improved security, simplified backend code, increased productivity. 

6. React Native is still a major toolset. Cross-platform development capabilities, robust ecosystem and community support, performance optimization features. These are the reasons behind React Native development services and their great condition in 2024. 

What sets React Native apart is a single codebase, reusable components, authentic native experience, and progressive web app support. It also allows seamless integration with native modules written in languages like Java or Swift.

7. The rise of FinOps and GreenOps. FinOps focuses on driving efficiency across various financial processes, while GreenOps emphasizes implementing eco-friendly practices for long-term value creation. These two already have supporting organizations. Like FinOps Foundation.

Integration of these aspects pretty much guarantees regulatory compliance. Organizations also increase their bottom line and enhance their brand reputation.

8. Enterprise developers relies more on distributed computing. The adoption of big data, the advent of cloud computing, and the emergence of complex, data-intensive applications have fueled the adoption of distributed computing in enterprise development. As businesses struggle with large and diverse datasets, monolithic architectures struggle to keep pace with the demand for scalability and performance. 

Distributed computing gives you a scalable, fault-tolerant alternative. This enables enterprises to process and analyze vast amounts of data in parallel, which leads to efficient resource utilization.

9. The rise of Internet of Behavior (IoB). Personalization in fintech is key to success. Some say that even the primary one. The more users feel at home while using your app, the higher chances you have for generating healthy ROI.

IoB brings various important data, like user behaviors, interests, and preferences, from business intelligence (BI), Big Data, and CDPs. Wearable devices, individual internet activity, and household electrical products contribute to this data. That generates valuable information on user’s behavior and interests.

Imagine one implementation of IoB in fintech apps – location tracking. This could be proven valuable while processing insurance claims in the crowded insurtech industry.

10. Quantum computing integration. Sure, there was a huge leap from inventing the wheel to having modern automobiles. And yet, the wheel was broadly utilized in the meantime. Just like quantum computing, which is being integrated left and right. Sure, it’s still in its infancy. Sure, we still have a long road ahead, with computing power, infrastructure, and market applications. But we are getting there.

Summary

The future is uncertain but it can be tamed. Or at least predicted with data, developing trends, and talented people who can create successful digital products. At Code & Pepper, we have experience, industry focus, a nimble tech stack, and AI-supported software development talents. We are here to add spice to the development process. Check for yourself, let’s talk!