Citizen developer and the era of technology-educated people
Two years ago, I attended a UiPath event in Bucharest where the concept of the citizen developer was promoted relentlessly. The promise was bold and compelling: anyone within an organization — regardless of technical background — could design and deploy automation workflows in a centralized, secure, and auditable environment. Powered by UiPath’s low-code/no-code platform, technology creation was no longer reserved for IT departments.
On paper, it sounded like the future had arrived.
The idea of citizen development itself wasn’t new. Gartner introduced the concept years earlier, envisioning a workforce empowered to build digital solutions without formal software engineering expertise. UiPath brought this vision to life at scale, articulating it clearly in a 2022 article by Brandon Nott, positioning citizen development as a cornerstone of modern digital transformation.
And to be fair, the program made sense — especially from a leadership perspective. It offered a carefully designed ecosystem: strong governance models, built-in security, compliance frameworks, orchestration layers, and full auditability. Technology democratization, but with guardrails. For decision-makers, it was a reassuring narrative: innovation without chaos.
That sounds very good for a decision maker like me, as well!
Yet there was a critical issue that remained largely unspoken during those conversations.
The cost.
Licensing complexity and high entry barriers made this form of democratization far less accessible than it claimed to be. In practice, the tools designed to empower “everyone” were still financially viable only for large enterprises. This isn’t a critique of UiPath specifically, nor a judgment of its pricing strategy — it’s simply an observation. Over time, I noticed several large organizations quietly shifting away from such platforms, replacing them with solutions that were easier to adopt and significantly cheaper to scale.
Still, the paradigm itself was solid. The concept was safe, mature, and exactly where you’d expect it to land: the top-right corner of a Gartner Magic Quadrant. What Gartner envisioned back in 2014 had, at last, materialized into a fully functional and enterprise-ready ecosystem.
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But fast-forward almost three years, and the landscape has changed again.
Thanks to the explosive growth and accessibility of AI, we are now witnessing a new wave — not just of citizen developers, but of technology-educated people. These are individuals who may not write code in the traditional sense, yet confidently optimize their daily workflows using lightweight, AI-driven tools.
The democratization of technology has taken a different path.
Across organizations, business leaders and teams are rapidly adopting tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Cursor, Copilot, and many others. The barrier to entry is no longer training programs or corporate licenses — it’s curiosity and a monthly subscription that rarely exceeds $30.
In business communities and professional networks, people openly share techniques, prompts, and workflows. They build sales pipelines integrated with LinkedIn, automate outreach through email and spreadsheets, generate AI-driven voice calls, and orchestrate surprisingly complex systems — all through prompt engineering and intuitive tools.
And most importantly: they work.
What struck me most was not the technical sophistication of these solutions, but the enthusiasm behind them. Non-technical professionals were creatively reshaping their work, gaining autonomy, and solving real problems without waiting for IT support or enterprise approval.
Coming from a software engineering background, my first instinct was skepticism. Then curiosity took over. I listened carefully as people described how their workflows evolved, how friction disappeared, and how productivity increased. I resisted the urge to argue about the tradeoffs. Instead, I chose to observe — and learn.
What I realized is this: the era of citizen developers hasn’t disappeared. It has simply evolved. The future belongs not only to platforms that promise democratization, but to people who are increasingly comfortable thinking in systems, prompts, and automations — regardless of their job title.
And this time, the tools truly are for everyone.
Instead of a closing statement, I dare to quote Brandon’s statement from his article.
