Indian software giant Zoho has unveiled a series of AI enhancements to its low-code application development platform, Zoho Creator. The update, in the form of ‘CoCreator’, has launched globally today and aims to simplify and accelerate the process of building applications for both developers and non-technical users.
CoCreator enables users to build and refine applications using written prompts, process diagrams, or business specification documents.
The feature is powered by Zoho’s AI engine, Zia, which aims to reduce the time required to launch applications and make the development process more accessible.
AIM spoke with Bharath Kumar, head of marketing and customer experience at Zoho, to understand what CoCreator aims to achieve and what it is capable of.
The Journey to Low-code + AI to Empower Developers
Launched in 2006 as a basic online database tool, the Zoho Creator platform has evolved over time to meet market demands. Over the years, it has expanded its capabilities to address workflows, cloud capabilities, and much more.
Kumar revealed that the recent AI integration marks a paradigm shift, enhancing the platform’s capabilities to empower users, whether they are experienced developers or non-technical professionals, such as those in sales, HR, or marketing. He shared that the vision with AI capabilities has been to empower everyone, simplify processes, and enable users to build powerful applications.
Kumar explained that the development of CoCreator was driven by a focus on key factors, with one of the main priorities being context. “The value of AI is in context, because the features are becoming table stakes,” he said.
He emphasised that the use case for an AI ability is more important than the feature itself, especially considering the rapid pace at which AI features are becoming available to everyone. This, he explained, is how they plan to differentiate themselves from competitors.
Kumar discussed another approach that aims to empower developers, rather than threatening their work. “What AI is helping with boils down to just two fundamental things—it is either helping you do things faster, or it is helping you do things at a better quality.”
He mentioned that the focus remains on providing speed and quality to the businesses and developers. Kumar also emphasised that they want to make the AI experience for developers and non-technical users seamless. Hence, one can zero in on the work without having to worry about the backend logic, training, and other technical details.
All things considered, Zoho has been internally testing the new AI capabilities for six months prior to release, providing confidence to its users in AI code generation capabilities and ensuring a secure experience.
CoCreator: What is it Capable Of?
Zoho’s CoCreator aims to simplify the app-building process. It is just like any other chatbot interaction, but within the Zoho platform.
For example, a business requirements document can be uploaded and transformed into an app in just a few seconds. Moreover, users can import data from spreadsheets or cloud storage, and CoCreator will automatically generate the app, integrating the imported data into the application’s structure.
The platform provides visual information on what is being done and the various modules being built. It asks whether the user wants to add more, displays the app schema, and outlines all the details about user permissions and components.
Users can also use CoCreator to optimise the existing code. AIM witnessed it in action during an exclusive briefing and can confirm that the AI feature potentially enhanced the readability of the code by adding comments, among other technical improvements.
The platform also enables deeper integrations with other tools by default. While the platform primarily supports Zoho’s own ecosystem, including Zoho People and Zoho Recruit, it is expanding its reach to integrate with third-party services, such as Salesforce.
AIM asked for information regarding context length, benchmark comparisons in terms of coding, and the foundational AI model being used under the hood to power Zoho AI. The company declined to comment, stating that the details are highly sensitive and internal.
The Plan Behind the Free Offering and Future Goals
According to Kumar, the platform is free to existing Zoho customers who are already subscribed to OpenAI or Zoho’s own AI models.
He highlighted the free access to AI code generation through Zoho AI as a strategic move to drive adoption and gather feedback on how AI can be leveraged in real-world business environments.
Kumar acknowledged that as usage scales, the platform might eventually adopt a pricing model that reflects the cost of running such a sophisticated service.
“How much a user will be willing to pay for the quality and speed is the thing that we have to decide. Currently, we are not able to, primarily because we don’t know how the users are going to use it and how much value they will see for it,” he said. “But for this year, we are not looking at pricing it.”
Kumar also mentioned that they plan to add the ability to have a voice recording uploaded and build an app from it.
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