OutSystems: AI-powered low code seeing increased demand in APAC

“If you look at our journey with low code, the core principles are all about delivering on time, on budget, and do more with less. We’re now applying those same principles to AI,” says Arnold Consengco, Regional Vice President for Southeast Asia and the Greater China region at OutSystems.

When it comes to AI-powered low code, OutSystems continues to be a leader in the industry. Known for its capabilities of empowering teams to move faster with its proven low code offerings, OutSystems is also recognized as a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms (LCAP) for the ninth consecutive year.

Tools like OutSystems Mentor and Agent Workbench from OutSystems empower customers to move beyond demos and gain the ability to generate secure, governed mission-critical agents, applications, and systems in production.

In the Asia Pacific region, OutSystems continues to experience positive growth, especially with the speed of AI adoption in the region needing a strong and reliable AI foundation.

CRN Asia speaks to Arnold Consengco, Regional Vice President for Southeast Asia and the Greater China region at OutSystems to understand more about their growth in the region as well as the challenges customers are facing and the opportunities available. Consengco also shares how OutSystems’ partner ecosystem plays a key role in getting the message to customers in this region.

Can you tell us more about the opportunities for OutSystems in the region right now?

If I look specifically at AI or low code in general, what I’m seeing is that we have very specific use cases that are highly relevant in this region. For example, legacy modernization is a strong area for us. Many customers have accumulated technical debt over years of relying on outdated technologies. Hence, application modernization is a huge priority.

In markets like Vietnam, we see companies leapfrogging and moving straight from traditional coding practices to being asked to do more with less. Budgets aren’t increasing, headcount isn’t increasing, yet demand is. So, they have to maximize resources. That’s where low code becomes attractive.

Globally, there’s always been a crunch on developer resources. Low code helps address that, and in developing countries it’s even more pronounced.

Then of course, there’s AI. AI is a huge opportunity. We launched our AI Agent Builder, and more recently our AI Agent Workbench. If you look at our journey with low code, the core principles are all about delivering on time, on budget, and do more with less. We’re now applying those same principles to AI.

Initially, some people said, “We don’t need low code anymore because we have AI.” But then they realized, what about security? What about governance and compliance? Those issues are still critical. Now the conversation is about how we apply the same proven low-code principles to AI structures which is essentially doing more with less, but now exponentially more.

Are you seeing equal levels of Proof of Concepts (PoC) activity across the countries in this region, or are some countries leading more than others?

It varies. The more developing markets often show higher activity because they want to leapfrog, to skip stages and jump ahead. For example, Vietnam is moving fast. Indonesia is willing to take risks, but maybe not as heavily as Korea. Korea is very aggressive and will do almost anything to move faster, though the project timelines there tend to be shorter.

Japan, on the other hand, is much more conservative. They take time before adopting new technology. Singapore is also cautious and very detail-oriented. Companies there are focused on compliance, scalability, and security. So, if you can demonstrate those aspects in a POC, you’ll have greater success.

What are the biggest challenges your clients are facing right now?

The biggest challenge is speed. With AI, customers expect to do more with less and show business results quickly. That’s why we created our Mentor project. It uses agentic AI to generate a minimum viable product in minutes — what used to take three to four months.

This allows IT to put something tangible in front of the business user almost immediately and then work together iteratively.

Interestingly, in Asia, it’s often IT that brings these projects forward. In the US or Europe, it’s usually the business side pushing IT. But AI is shifting that dynamic here. Business leaders are now becoming more involved and dictating requirements directly.

The other big challenge is scalability. Companies may build something once, but if it can’t scale or be reused across applications, they just create more technical debt. So, interoperability and scalability are critical.

Do you think agentic AI makes things more complicated?

It actually makes things simpler for business users. The challenge is on the IT side. Many Asian companies still follow a waterfall approach rather than agile. To really leverage AI, you need agility.

With low code, if a business asks for a screen change, we can deliver it immediately. We’re now applying that same responsiveness to AI through our Mentor, Agent Builder, and Workbench tools.

So why are organizations still struggling? Is it lack awareness or understanding?

Partly. There’s also a lot of hype or what I’d call “vaporware.” Some valuations are crazy, and not all solutions are secure or compliant.

Since OutSystems was founded in 2001, our foundation has been to deliver on time and on budget. Our architecture has always been solid. We’re applying those same principles to AI.

The problem is that many companies jump into POCs without a clear revenue objective. A study by MIT showed that less than 5% of AI POCs actually moved beyond pilot stage or contributed to revenue. That’s why we’ve focused our bets on agentic AI and building AI agents with reusability, governance, and compliance in mind.

When we upload a customer’s requirements into our Mentor platform, they can immediately see a prototype — maybe only 20–30% complete — but it’s something tangible to discuss and iterate on in an agile way.

So, for customers who are still unsure about adopting low code, what advice would you give them?

First, they need to clearly define their success criteria. What do they want to gain from low code?

Some customers choose low code but then outsource most of their development. That reduces the benefits. The biggest gains come when you use low code internally to speed up delivery, reduce costs, and scale.

They should also consider time-to-market. If speed is critical, then low code is a perfect fit.

Another key consideration is scalability. The more applications you build on the platform, the more value you get. So, pick a provider that supports both simple and complex, enterprise-grade use cases.

Customers also need to think about technical debt. Many companies end up repeating old mistakes by choosing providers that lock them in. At OutSystems, we focus on avoiding that. Our customers — including enterprise players like Toyota in Japan — use the platform for critical applications, not just simple use cases. That’s the real test of scalability and performance.

What about smaller companies, especially the SMB segment? How do you see their adoption of low code?

Many SMBs prefer managed services. That’s where our partners play a huge role. They can develop solutions on OutSystems and then deliver them to SMBs as SaaS applications. This allows SMBs to adopt digital solutions quickly without heavy investment in development teams. It’s one of the reasons many partners choose us — they can build fast, scale fast, and offer solutions across multiple customers in the same industry.

The uptick in ISV and MSP solutions is much stronger recently. It’s driven partly by cost pressures and partly by the shortage of skilled developers. SMBs want to reduce costs while still accessing high-quality solutions, and partners can bridge that gap.

Could you share a bit more about how your channel ecosystem enables this?

When we started in Japan, success came after a lot of education. In developing markets, you first invest in education, then customer success follows, and then partners naturally grow from that base.

In Malaysia, for instance, many of our customers told their partners to adopt OutSystems. Our approach is always partner-first. We provide the platform, and our partners deliver the solutions. That way we can scale. If we tried to do everything ourselves, we’d end up competing with partners, which isn’t what we want.

Our role is to reduce platform risk and to ensure success plans are in place. The partners, whether local or global SIs, build the core solutions for customers. That’s our strategy globally.

How do you ensure local partners are aligned with you and meeting customer needs at the same level?

That’s where our Partner Enablement Program comes in. Partners go through certifications to build confidence on the platform. They can also access success plans for complex projects.

We provide both technical and administrative support through our internal partner program, which includes best practices as well.

We also have Forge, our community repository, where partners contribute reusable components. It’s grown from 2,000 applications when I started to over 7,000 now. Both partners and OutSystems contribute, which makes the ecosystem stronger.

Rather than one partner trying to dominate the market, all of our partners work together to expand the overall pie. That collaboration is one of the reasons OutSystems has been viewed positively by partners.

Finally, what are your goals for this region? Where do you see OutSystems heading?

One thing I’ve noticed in Asia is the relationship between business and IT. Traditionally, business tells IT what to do, and IT just executes — either building or buying solutions.

Where I want to contribute is in eliminating that friction. With AI, especially agentic AI, business and IT can collaborate in real time to develop solutions quickly. That’s transformative.

The other reality is budgets. Every CIO and CEO I talk to says the same: “My budget isn’t going up, but I need to do more.” They need to reduce maintenance and increase innovation, often without increasing headcount. AI makes that possible.

So, my goal is to help organizations in the region build more innovation, faster, while managing security and compliance. Security is always a top two conversation and usually by the second meeting, the CISO is already in the room. Low code helps by giving them control within a secure platform.