5 Automation Challenges and How Low-Code Tools Help

The demand for faster and easier ways to develop software is growing every day. To meet this need, many organizations are turning to low-code tools. These platforms are becoming a key part of the modern application development and testing processes. Indeed, 87% of enterprise developers use low-code process automation software for at least part of their development work, as per this source. Moreover, by 2025, 70% of new applications are expected to be built with low-code or no-code technologies — up from just 25% in 2020, according to Gartner.

Low-code business process automation software allows developers to create applications quickly without writing a lot of code. They also make it easier for non-technical users to build simple tools, including web apps and mobile solutions for different operating systems, to streamline and automate repetitive tasks. This flexibility helps businesses save time and resources typically required not only for development directly, but also for data management, performance testing, and other tasks. However, automation projects often face challenges. Issues like integration, scalability, and security still need to be addressed.

In this article, we'll explore some of the common challenges in business process automation and explain how low-code tools can help companies solve them.

What are low-code tools?

Low-code tools simplify application development using visual interfaces and drag-and-drop features instead of traditional “hand-coding”. They are designed to make development faster and more accessible, even for non-technical users (often called “citizen developers”). These tools provide pre-built templates, reusable components, and automation features that reduce the need for specialized programming knowledge.

With low-code platforms, companies can create solutions not only for optimizing their business processes but also for automating testing tasks. Manual testing processes, including cross-browser testing, usability testing, and security testing across multiple environments, are very time-consuming. Automation can help to successfully address and even fully eliminate a lot of common challenges in this field.

Low-code platforms enable businesses to develop applications in a matter of days or weeks, rather than the months traditionally required. What other benefits can low-code/no-code automation offer modern businesses?

Benefits of low-code development and test automation tools

Speed

Low-code automation software allows developers to quickly create and deploy applications, significantly reducing the time to market. Automated workflows can be built and updated rapidly to meet changing business needs.

When combined with test automation, this speed of software delivery and deployment is further boosted. Teams that use test automation often release updates way faster than those that stick to manual testing. With automation, every deployment gets checked almost instantly—even across different test environments—so you can keep delivering new features continuously without sacrificing quality.

Automation scripts, once written, can be executed repeatedly without additional effort and the necessity to perform repetitive tasks again and again. This means teams can focus on exploratory or edge-case testing, which can't be conducted with automation tools and requires human judgment.

Accessibility for non-developers

With their intuitive, user-friendly interfaces, low-code tools empower non-technical employees to participate in building business process automation solutions powered by machine learning and other AI technologies.

This reduces the workload on IT teams and accelerates digital transformation. Low-code test automation frameworks can offer visual test scripting, making it easier for non-developers to define and run automated tests without writing code. This democratizes not only development but also quality assurance, security testing automation, and other related processes.

Cost savings

By cutting down on heavy coding and speeding up development, low-code platforms help businesses save both time and money. Plus, they often come with built-in tools for debugging, testing, managing data, and deploying apps—so you don’t need to invest extra in those areas.

Though this point is often underestimated at the stage of budget planning, manual testing procedures, including regression and security testing, require significant time and money investments. Automated tests can help to significantly reduce QA costs.

Flexibility

Low-code platforms are built to work smoothly with your existing systems and grow with your business. They make it easy to create scalable automation solutions without having to constantly start from scratch.

When you combine them with automated testing, you can keep everything running smoothly as you make changes. Automated tests help catch issues early and make sure your current features still work after every update—which is super important when you're regularly adding new services or workflows.

Faster problem solving

The low-code approach makes it easier to iterate and adjust business processes and workflows, allowing organizations to quickly solve new problems and adapt to common challenges.

When bugs in code or app performance issues are detected, automated test suites can rapidly identify root causes. This makes the debugging cycle much shorter.

What are the key process automation challenges?

While process automation promises increased efficiency, reduced operational costs, and enhanced scalability, its implementation is not always seamless. When organizations strive to integrate automated systems into their workflows, they often encounter a variety of technical, strategic, and human-centric process automation challenges.

How do the benefits of low-code tools help businesses overcome common process automation challenges? That's exactly what we'll explore in the rest of this article — keep reading to find out more.

Challenge 1: Limited IT resources

As businesses grow and need more automation, there just aren’t enough skilled developers and IT staff to keep up. This shortage can cause a few big problems:

• Slower timelines: When there aren’t enough people to handle the workload, automation projects can drag on, and important solutions take longer to go live.
• Higher costs: Hiring and keeping experienced IT talent isn’t cheap. And if your team is handling everything—from development to automation—it can really drive up labor costs.
• Bottlenecks in business operations: With limited resources, IT teams are often overburdened with multiple high-priority tasks, leaving little time for developing business process automation solutions that could significantly improve business efficiency.

How low-code solutions and test automation can help?

They allow citizen developers to create and implement automation workflows, taking the burden off IT teams. Here's how:

Empowering business users

Low-code platforms provide an intuitive, visual interface that allows business users in departments like marketing, finance, and operations to build automation workflows without writing code.

Drag-and-drop features

With simple drag-and-drop functionality, users can create and manage automation processes with ease, greatly speeding up development cycles.

Reusable components

Pre-built templates and reusable components make it even easier for users to quickly create new automation workflows without “reinventing the wheel” every time.

When integrated with test automation tools, these platforms also allow for reusable test suites that run automatically after each change. Such tools can test code across multiple browsers, testing environments, and operating systems. This also greatly contributes to reducing labor resources required for such activities.

{{cta}}

Challenge 2: Integration with existing systems and third-party services

One of the biggest challenges in automation projects is getting new tools to work with old systems. Legacy software is often crucial to day-to-day operations, but it’s built on outdated tech that wasn’t made to connect with today’s automation tools. This can lead to:

• Complex data flow: Getting data to move smoothly between old and new systems can be tricky—it often requires custom code, which adds extra work and slows things down.
• High costs: It’s pricey to bring in specialists who can build and maintain those custom connections.

• Lack of flexibility: Older systems aren’t built to easily handle new integrations, so even small updates can become a big headache.

How low-code solutions can help?

‍Low-code platforms are equipped to address these integration challenges by providing tools and features that simplify the process:

Pre-built connectors

Low-code platforms often come with an extensive library of pre-built connectors for popular software systems, databases, and cloud services. For example, platforms like Retool and Appsmith offer connectors to integrate with ERP systems, CRMs, or HR software seamlessly. These ready-made tools eliminate the need for custom coding and dramatically speed up the integration process.

APIs made simple

Most low-code platforms provide robust API management features that enable users to easily connect systems through REST or SOAP APIs. This reduces the complexity of connecting modern tools with older systems that still rely on API-based interactions.

Unified interfaces

Low-code automation software can create a single interface to bridge multiple systems. For example, a retail company needs to integrate its legacy inventory system with a new e-commerce platform. Traditionally, this would take months of custom coding.

With low-code tools like Retool or UI Bakery, the company can quickly build workflows or interfaces to sync data between the two systems using pre-built connectors. This enables real-time stock updates, streamlined operations, and an enhanced customer experience — all achieved in just days instead of months.

{{streamlining-gifting-marketplace-operations-with-retool}}

Challenge 3: High development costs

Developing custom automation solutions often comes with a hefty price tag (and understandably so). These costs stem from several factors, including the need for highly skilled developers, extensive time commitments, and specialized tools. For many businesses—especially small and mid-sized ones—these costs can make it really hard to move forward with automation in a meaningful way.

How low-code solutions can help?

They help cut development costs by reducing the amount of coding needed and providing built-in, ready-to-use components. Here’s how:

Ready-to-use tools

Low-code tools often include libraries full of ready-to-use templates, widgets, and workflows that developers can easily drag and drop into their apps. Since you don’t have to build everything from the ground up, it saves a lot of time and effort. The same principle applies to test automation, where reusable test cases, test scripts, and testing frameworks can significantly reduce validation time during development cycles.

Faster development cycles

With visual development interfaces and drag-and-drop functionality, low-code platforms cut development timelines from months to weeks — or even days. Moreover, let's not forget that automation testing can also be streamlined with the right tools. This reduces the labor hours of development and testing teams needed for each project, directly lowering costs.

See how a Retool-based app saves 120+ hours per month for a travel company in this case study.

Lower maintenance costs

Low-code solutions are easier to keep up and running since updates can be made quickly—no need to rewrite large chunks of code. That means your automation stays current without a big time or money investment.

Challenge 4: Difficulty in scaling automation

As businesses grow, their automation needs get more complex. They’re scaling operations, adding new users, and introducing more processes—and that can put serious pressure on traditional automation systems, especially those built with custom code. This often leads to challenges like:

• Increased complexity: As things expand, workflows get more detailed and the need for automation grows. Updating custom-coded systems to handle all this can take a lot of time and effort.

• Performance issues: With more users and processes in play, systems can start to slow down, run into errors, or even crash more often.
• Limited flexibility: Custom-built systems are often rigid and difficult to modify. When business needs change rapidly, it can require a complete redesign or rebuild of the system, further increasing costs and development time.

How low-code solutions can help with this key challenge?

Low-code platforms are built to grow with your business. They let you expand and adjust your automation without the heavy costs and headaches that usually come with traditional methods. Here’s how they make scaling easier:

Flexible and adaptable workflows

Low-code platforms allow businesses to quickly modify and expand their workflows as needs change.

Seamless integration

Scaling often involves integrating new tools, systems, or software. Low-code platforms come with pre-built connectors and APIs that make it easy to integrate additional technologies or scale up existing ones without extensive rework.

Built-in scalability

Many low-code platforms are cloud-based, offering automatic scaling based on workload demands. As the number of users or the volume of data increases, the platform can handle the growth without requiring manual adjustments to infrastructure.

Cost-effective scaling

Because low-code platforms reduce the need for custom development, businesses can allocate their budgets toward other strategic initiatives, such as innovation or customer experience improvements, instead of investing heavily in infrastructure and development costs.

{{pdf-editor}}

Challenge 5: Difficulty in adapting to changing business needs

Changes in the market, new regulations, or shifting business priorities—these things often mean you’ll need to update your automation workflows. That could be anything from tweaking business logic to adjusting integrations or meeting new compliance rules. With traditional, custom-coded systems, making these updates can be slow and complicated, which leads to:

• Slow response times: Custom-built systems typically require manual coding and thorough integration testing to implement changes, leading to delays in adapting to new requirements or opportunities.
• High cost of changes: Updating custom-coded systems usually means bringing in developers, running a bunch of tests, and spending a lot of time—so costs add up fast.
• Risk of downtime: Tweaking traditional systems can cause hiccups or even outages, which can slow down your operations and impact your customers.

How low-code solutions can help to address this common challenge?

Low-code platforms are built to be flexible, helping businesses keep up with change without the long timelines and high costs of traditional development. Here's how they make that easier:

Quick changes, fast results

Thanks to visual interfaces and drag-and-drop tools, it’s easy to update workflows, tweak logic, or adjust integrations on the fly. So when there’s a new feature to roll out or a regulation to follow, you can make it happen without waiting weeks.

Less coding, less hassle

Low-code tools make it possible for non-tech team members to jump in and make updates on their own. You don’t always need a developer, which speeds things up and keeps things simple.

Easy integrations

With built-in connectors and APIs, it’s pretty straightforward to link low-code platforms to other systems. That makes it easier to adjust workflows, keep up with new requirements, or plug in new tools as your business grows.

For a deeper look at how low-code solves business challenges, check out this particular guide. Or visit our low-code blog section to explore more about tools, challenges, benefits, and tips on choosing the right platform and finding the right low-code specialist.

Ways to address the key challenges of introducing automated tests

It's interesting that while automated testing can address a lot of business issues related to software delivery (especially when combined with low-code tools), low-code tools themselves can also help to get over the most common test automation challenges.

While talking about test automation challenges, people usually mean test script maintenance, limited coverage of automation test cases, high initial setup costs of cloud-based testing platforms (especially when used for different testing environments), test data management, test case prioritization, and others.

Here's how the low-code approach can help in this case:

• Low-code tools often include modular and reusable components that make it easier to maintain and update test cases. Instead of writing test scripts from scratch, users can utilize pre-built test modules or automation testing flows.
• Low-code solutions can ensure reliable coverage of test scripts. Users have the possibility to implement data-driven test cases. They can leverage a range of inputs without having to manually write separate test scripts for different scenarios.
• Low-code platforms can optimize automated test execution and make it easier to scale up testing cases without adding extra complexity.
• Low-code platforms streamline the process of managing test environments and test data for continuous integration into the delivered software.

How to select the best low-code platform?

When choosing a low-code development service, keep these points in mind:

• User-friendliness: While low-code platforms are mainly designed for non-technical users, some may offer advanced customization options that require more technical expertise. Choose a platform that balances ease of use for both technical and non-technical users, enabling everyone to build solutions effectively.
• Scalability: Ensure the platform can grow with your business, handling more complex workflows and increased demand.
• Seamless integrations: Choose a tool that easily connects with your existing systems and tools to avoid disruptions.
• Customization flexibility: Find a platform that allows you to tailor workflows, logic, and UI to suit your unique needs.
• Security potential: Prioritize platforms with strong security measures, especially for sensitive data or regulatory compliance.
• Know your needs: There's no one-size-fits-all solution. Understand your business priorities to make the best choice.

Need help with low-code development?

At Akveo, our business automation experts are here to guide you in selecting the ideal platform for your business and kickstart your low-code development process. Drop us a message to get started!

{{form}}