Boston – June 22, 2023 – Mendix, a Siemens business and a global leader in modern enterprise application development, today outlined powerful new AI and machine learning capabilities, including a revolutionary context-aware AI developer tool. All of these features will be available and announced when Mendix 10 is released. During the live streaming event on June 27th.
New AI and machine learning enhancements reinforce Mendix’s low-code platform’s position as the de facto standard for building smart business applications and solutions. Mendix 10 features significantly expanded AI capabilities in two key areas. First, Mendix 10 enables enterprises to seamlessly integrate AI use cases with low-code applications using Mendix’s new machine learning kit. Second, the platform greatly expands the scope and capabilities of AI-enabled application development.
Incorporating AI-enabled Capabilities into Low-Code Applications via Mendix’s Machine Learning Kit
Addressing the urgent market need to integrate and deploy AI into applications, Mendix 10 is a solution that enables enterprises to embed custom AI models within their applications using the AI frameworks and languages of their choice. It features a new machine learning (ML) kit that allows you to build These include pre-trained models built with PyTorch, Caffee2, Cognitive Toolkit, and other popular AI frameworks that adopt the Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX) standard. ONNX-based models can be easily imported into Mendix’s integrated development environment (IDE) and incorporated into Mendix applications. Doing so provides support for different inference patterns and pre- and post-processing logic. The Mendix Runtime has been enhanced to support seamless execution of ONNX-based models, allowing ML models to run in the same environment as your application.
These pre-trained models, whether open-source or developed in-house, are easy to package and deploy within Mendix applications, providing speed, scalability, and a great UI for companies looking to leverage AI technology. , delivering a low-code experience with faster time to market. Realize business value and his ROI.
By eliminating time-consuming manual integration tasks, ML Kit can reduce AI deployments from weeks to hours. Built-in integration of embedded AI models has lower latency compared to API-based integration because ML models run in the same container as the application, facilitating better performance for AI-enhanced applications. Deploying embedded AI models also enables robust continuity of AI services used in offline, on-edge, or IoT applications. Finally, in-application deployment of ML models eliminates the need to upload enterprise data or IP to third-party systems outside the Mendix application environment, providing an additional layer of security.
The Mendix ML Kit is based on the Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX), an open source framework created in 2017 to enable framework interoperability. ML Kit provides access to dozens of pre-trained, ready-to-use machine language models from the fully customizable ONNX Model Zoo.
“Companies with advanced machine learning capabilities can easily incorporate their models into Mendix applications using ML Kit,” said Amir Piltan, senior product manager for AI at Mendix. . “But for companies early in the adoption curve, companies don’t have to build models from scratch. They can start with the ONNX Model Zoo, fine-tune models for their specific use cases, and move away from the Mendix ecosystem. It keeps data and AI models safe because there is no data, which makes it easier to adopt AI from an operational, commercial, and governance perspective.”
Empowering Every Developer with Real-Time AI Assistance
The second area of enhancements for developers is the new Mendix Assist Best Practice bot, which provides a virtual AI-enabled “co-developer” who inspects applications in real-time to implement Mendix software development best practices. is characterized by Data validation bots help developers build validation logic in an automated way using pre-built expressions. These platform upgrades to the Mendix Assist family of bots put the power of software development in the hands of a wide range of developers, for example a business technologist using his AI-assisted solutions to ensure the highest level of quality. be able to create.
Mendix’s new bot also serves as a valuable resource for seasoned developers by identifying development anti-patterns, providing their location, and guiding developers on how to address and resolve them. Help ensure your application adheres to Mendix development best practices.
At its core, the new AI-driven bot is designed to improve the productivity and efficiency of Mendix developers across diverse skill sets while optimizing the performance and quality of Mendix applications.
Combining low-code and AI for turbocharged solutions
“We believe AI tools and low-code development are a natural fit for building better software faster,” said Hans de Visser, Chief Product Officer at Mendix. “Low-code businesses will be able to use the new capabilities of the Mendix 10 platform to extract more value from AI in an efficient manner.”
“The next step is the introduction of ‘Mendix Chat,’ a chatbot in the Mendix IDE that guides developers on how to apply certain concepts and patterns,” added De Visser. We are currently training large-scale language models based on sources from the Mendix forums, Mendix documentation, and support systems. Next, we introduce generative AI in the DSL to generate models and model elements based on natural language input. This means that app developers and business domain experts can use free text (user stories) and generate application models from it. “
Paving the way for in-platform AI integration
Despite the current popularity of a new generation of smart applications, businesses and analysts are finding significant barriers to leveraging the promised ROI of AI-enhanced business solutions. According to Gartner, more than 50% of CIOs are shelving successful AI-focused pilot programs due to production-oriented obstacles such as cost, complexity, time constraints, and talent shortages.
Amir Piltan, Senior Product Manager for AI at Mendix, said: “We have applied core principles of low-code abstraction and automation for our customers who want a connected landscape for embedding machine language models into their applications.” It’s the first platform that allows you to easily drag-and-drop and deploy ML models into your application’s logic without having to
Piltan added, “The combination of the Mendix Assist Bot and ML Kit will make developers more productive throughout the software development lifecycle, enabling them to build smart apps in smart ways. Mendix 10 will enable companies to respond to ever-changing market demands and deliver innovation quickly.”
About Mendix
In a digital-first world, customers want to stay ahead of every need, employees want better tools to get their jobs done, and companies want a sweeping digital transformation to survive and thrive. I am aware of that. Mendix, the low-code engine of the Siemens Xcelerator platform, is rapidly becoming the application development platform of choice to power the enterprise digital landscape. Mendix’s industry-leading low-code platform, dedicated partner network, and extensive marketplace support advanced technology solutions that increase engagement, streamline operations, and reduce IT congestion. Built on the pillars of abstraction, automation, cloud, and collaboration, Mendix dramatically increases developer productivity and empowers business technologists to create apps based on their domain expertise. increase. Mendix enables companies to build apps faster than ever before. Facilitate meaningful collaboration between IT and business professionals. It also maintains his IT administration of the entire application.Consistently recognized as a leader and visionary According to leading industry analysts, the platform is cloud-native, open, extensible, agile and proven. From artificial intelligence and augmented reality to intelligent automation and native mobile, Mendix and Siemens Xcelerator are the backbone of digital-first companies. The Mendix low-code platform is used by over 4,000 companies in 46 countries and has a vibrant community of over 300,000 developers who have created over 200,000 applications.
