OutSystems calls its major initiative "Project Turing" - in reference to Alan Turing, the famous father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.

AI and ML are changing software development
In its new Center of Excellence, OutSystems wants to investigate how AI and machine learning can change the world of software development within the next decade. As part of the project, OutSystems:
- Establish a new AI Center of Excellence in Lisbon, Portugal
- dedicate 20 percent of its total research and development budget to
focus on this challenge
- collaborate with industry experts, technology pioneers and universities to drive innovative research and new developments in AI and ML.

Initiative aligns with OutSystems' corporate strategy
"Our bold vision for 'Project Turing' fits perfectly with the fundamental ideas we had when we founded OutSystems 17 years ago," says Paulo Rosado, CEO of OutSystems. "Our goal is to reduce the complexity of software development and transform enterprise software. It's in our DNA. We see the potential to transform the entire software lifecycle through AI. Not only can AI assistants help model new applications with the right architecture and user experiences, they can also help companies analyze the business value of software and its impact on the business.

AI improves software development
The analysts at Forrester are also thinking along these lines: "AI will improve, accelerate and disrupt the software development cycle. A combination of AI technologies, such as advanced machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing and business rules, will impact all phases of the software development lifecycle and help developers create even better software even faster."

The Forrester report also states: "AI will not only improve apps as we know them today - it will enable developers to go beyond apps and create the software experience of the future. "1

Another recent Gartner research report states: "Machine learning enables companies to implement and analyze models that a human would never have time to do. It helps companies gain hidden insights into areas that would be impossible to identify by other means. "2

Data sets enable extensive developments
"As the leading low-code platform provider for over a decade, we have one of the world's largest data sets of productive applications," said Nuno Antunes, Vice President of Engineering at OutSystems. "For example, while IBM Watson is using large amounts of medical data from the Mayo Clinic to improve patient health, we are in a unique position to leverage AI, ML and big data to identify best practices and build expert assistants.
identify best practices and create expert assistants. This will be of significant help to our customers in the future."

Focus on three projects
Initially, the new OutSystems Center of Excellence will focus on three major projects:

1. the development of new AI assistants to further accelerate app development.
By providing best-practice patterns, components and widgets during application design, AI assistants will make developers' work more efficient and become a new paradigm for pair programming.
2. the development of AI-based analyzers that reduce application maintenance costs.
Complex applications can be analyzed for their structure before they are used. AI-based analyzers can predict problems and monitor usage patterns in real time to provide recommendations for improving and refactoring applications.
3. the development of AI-based systems that automatically make recommendations for the features of new applications.
They do this based on big data, bug reports, customer feedback, adoption rates and business metrics.

The new OutSystems Center of Excellence launched yesterday, February 19, 2018, the 72nd anniversary of Alan Turing's first detailed proposal for a stored-program computer.

1 Forrester Research: "How AI Will Change Software Development And Applications" by Diego Lo Giudice, November 2, 2016.
2 Gartner: "AI Will Alter Application Development - Things to Do Now" by Van L. Baker, August 17, 2017.