Industries pursuing digital transformation can no longer follow the “one-size-fits-all” approach to application development. Custom enterprise application development is needed today to build an agile and flexible business. Customized apps have a direct impact on the company's customer experience and operational excellence. 

With its built-in code generation capability, Generative AI is a perfect fit for enterprise software development across industry sectors. Whether for finance, healthcare, retail, or manufacturing Generative AI can help enterprises customize their applications based on industry requirements and personalized customer needs.  

Here’s a look at why custom enterprise application development matters – and how Generative AI can be a game-changer. 

The Case for Custom Enterprise Apps 

In a competitive market, there's a growing demand for industry-specific (or customized) applications for companies to stay ahead of their peers. The traditional "one-size-fits-all" development mode fails to address industry-specific business problems or needs, thus resulting in missed opportunities.  

On the other hand, custom enterprise applications cater to specific business requirements, thus providing a competitive advantage for the enterprise in a tight market.

Here are some of the benefits of custom industry-specific applications: 

• Includes only essential functionalities, while discarding unused application features. 
• Built for scalability and flexibility to accommodate new features and changing customer needs. 
• Delivers cost efficiency in the long run – by reducing business dependence on third-party tools. 
• Provides a personalized user experience, thus enhancing customer engagement with the brand. 
• Tailored to business-specific needs, ensuring alignment with unique operational requirements. 
• Can be seamlessly integrated into the existing technological footprint, reducing friction and ensuring smoother adoption. 

How Generative AI Transforms App Development 

Here’s how Generative AI technology can transform custom app development: 

1. Accelerated development 

   By automating code generation for new custom applications, Generative AI can reduce development time by up to 50%. This level of code automation enables application developers to focus on resolving complex coding problems – instead of writing code. 

   Besides coding, Generative AI tools can also accelerate application testing and designing, thus further reducing development time. 

2. Dynamic customization 

   As a dynamic tool, Generative AI can create customized industry-specific solutions. For example, in financial services, Generative AI can automate the generation of the latest financial reports – based on its analysis of the company’s financial health indicators and revenue streams. 

   Similarly, in personalized apps (like personal finance or eCommerce), Generative AI can offer custom recommendations based on the individual’s preferences and goals. 

3. Lower development costs 

   By automating code generation and simulating user experiences, Generative AI can help companies reduce development costs. Through automation, this technology significantly reduces dependence on skilled developers – as well as costs incurred due to human errors.  

The Technical Advantage of GenAI in Development 

GenAI in application development is not restricted to simply automating code generation.

Here are some of its technical advantages in app development: 

1. Integration with emerging technologies - 

   With GenAI, application developers can also elevate the capabilities of other emerging technologies like IoT, augmented & virtual reality (AR/VR), and Blockchain. For instance, by analyzing real-time data from IoT-enabled connected devices, AI systems can identify anomalies and deliver actionable insights in a short time. 

   Similarly, developers can harness the potential of Generative AI in AR/VR applications by:

   Generating customized content in real-time. 
   Personalizing AR/VR content for each individual. 
   Adapting to user's requirements in real-time. 

2. Enhancing the user interface 

   With a natural language interface (NLI), humans can interact intuitively with a machine using natural language – and without any technical expertise. Along with NLI, Generative AI can transform human-machine interactions and the overall user experience (UX). 

   For example, healthcare professionals can interact with a GenAI-enabled medical device using natural language and extract valuable inputs related to medical diagnosis.  

3. Scalability and innovation 

   With GenAI, an enterprise app development company can modernize legacy applications for a future-ready architecture. GenAI can deliver innovation by automating code optimization in legacy apps and improving its user experience. 

   Similarly, GenAI can streamline the migration from monolithic applications to a flexible microservices-based system, which improves its scalability and flexibility. GenAI can “break down” monolithic systems into smaller independent services that are easier to scale and manage. 

The ROI of GenAI in Enterprise App Development 

Is Generative AI delivering a healthy ROI in enterprise app development? According to IDC, GenAI is delivering 3.7x returns for each invested dollar. Financial services have the best ROI from GenAI – followed by the media, telecom, retail, and manufacturing sectors. 

92% of users are leveraging this technology to improve their productivity. That said, companies are moving towards industry-specific GenAI use cases to improve their time-to-market and agility. 

Besides productivity, GenAI is delivering customer satisfaction and engagement. A Microsoft survey found that enterprises using GenAI recorded an 18% improvement in customer satisfaction and market share. Here are some of the key metrics: 

• Cost savings 
• Revenue growth 
• Customer satisfaction scores 
• Operational efficiency 

Finally, Generative AI is delivering cost efficiency through automation and reusability. Enterprises adopting GenAI must align their implementation costs and results with their expectations. Cost-effectiveness includes the following variables: 

• Cost of setting up the app development environment 
• AI usage costs  
• Training costs for cross-functional teams including developers and business users 
• Costs incurred in implementing high-value use cases (including the resources) 
• Recurring costs in the form of model updates, maintenance, and additional resources 

Implementation Roadmap: Getting Started with GenAI 

To maximize their ROI from Generative AI, product companies need a clear roadmap on how to implement this technology. Here's how they can get started: 

1. Assessing their application needs and feasibility 

   With its wide potential, GenAI is applicable to a variety of use cases. Hence, enterprises must first have clarity on why their custom applications need this tool – and whether GenAI can achieve this business goal. 

   Through this discovery phase, enterprises can identify how GenAI can make a difference – and how it’s adding value to their business operations or customers. 

2. Building the right framework 

   Next, enterprises need to build the right GenAI framework using a variety of datasets trained on natural language. With this framework, developers can create smarter and intuitive applications. Frameworks also provide pre-trained AI models, which can be customized for the specific business use case. 

3. Iterative development 

   With an iterative cycle of app development, enterprises can adopt a feedback mechanism to improve the quality of their final application. This approach provides a clear ROI at each step of the development process. For industry-specific applications, enterprises can benefit from real feedback from industry stakeholders. 

Conclusion 

Custom enterprise applications are enabling companies to maintain their competitive edge in a tight global market. Generative AI is undoubtedly the future of custom enterprise apps thanks to capabilities such as: 

• Automatic code generation and testing 
• Real-time insights from industry data 
• Impact on development time and costs 

As an enterprise app development company, Xoriant can help you unlock the immense potential of Generative AI for your industry-specific use cases. If you want to know about our enterprise application development services, contact us today.