Internal software development is undergoing a quiet revolution. For decades, the promise of non-technical teams building their own tools was out of reach, limited by technical barriers, scalability concerns, and fragmented workflows. But generative AI is transforming that equation, collapsing the gap between idea and execution. Today, product managers, operations leads, and even designers are prototyping fully functional internal apps using natural language. This shift isn’t just about better prototyping, it’s accelerating iteration and expanding ownership across organizations. Here’s how we got here, and why the next era of internal tooling is arriving sooner than expected.
A brief history of internal tools
Companies have always needed internal software dashboards, workflows, and databases that power operations behind the scenes. For decades, non-engineers tried to fill the gap with tools like Lotus Notes, Excel macros, and Access forms. But most of these self-built solutions turned into fragile prototypes that were hard to maintain and scale.
By the 2010s, pressure for better internal tooling had intensified. The proliferation of cloud and SaaS software scattered data across platforms, creating constant context switching and operational drag. Engineering time became increasingly scarce, and digital transformation efforts pushed even traditional industries to automate manual work. Off-the-shelf tools helped, but they often fell short when it came to integration depth, custom logic, or speed.
In response, a new mindset took hold: internal software was no longer nice to have; it became a foundational part of running a modern organization. Facebook became a well known example, investing heavily in internal dashboards, developer tools, and deployment systems to move faster and operate more effectively. But few companies had the resources to build this kind of infrastructure in-house. That gap created a clear opportunity: if internal tooling was essential but out of reach for most, new platforms could bring those capabilities to the rest of the world.
By the mid 2010s, as reliance on internal tools deepened across industries, the limitations of spreadsheets, ad hoc scripts, and siloed workflows became increasingly obvious. This unmet need gave rise to a new generation of platforms built to make internal software easier to create, maintain, and scale without requiring full engineering teams.
First innovation
Two major players emerged with distinct approaches: Retool, which streamlined internal app development for engineers by removing boilerplate and UI plumbing, and Zapier, which enabled non-technical users to automate workflows and connect SaaS tools through a no-code interface.
These are the most prominent use cases for internal tools that companies build, the teams that build the most internal tools, and the teams that dedicate a person to maintain the tools:
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Over time, both platforms expanded: Retool added hosted databases and templates; Zapier introduced front-end and storage capabilities. But despite traction, this first generation of tools had real limitations.
Why low-code/no-code platforms haven’t fully transformed internal development
Despite major progress, today’s internal tooling platforms still face fundamental challenges:
- Not Truly Self-Service (Outside Technical Personas) Low-code/no-code tools simplify basic workflows, but often require scripting (e.g., JavaScript, SQL) for anything beyond simple use cases. Visual builders lower the floor, but not the ceiling. Non-technical users frequently stall on complex logic or data tasks, requiring hand-offs to engineers — reintroducing familiar bottlenecks.
- Enterprise Integration and Security Hurdles Adoption in larger orgs is often constrained by integration and compliance concerns. On-premise options help but are resource-intensive to maintain, while cloud-only tools frequently fall short of data security standards. Key features like RBAC or audit logs may be locked behind premium tiers. Security incidents have underscored the risks of embedding third-party tools into core workflows.
- Scalability and Flexibility Limits These tools often work well for prototypes but tend to degrade under complexity. Builders can encounter performance issues with large datasets or components-heavy interfaces. Support for backend scripting is limited, and extensibility is constrained. Automation platforms also run into rate limits, shallow API access, and brittle workflows — pushing teams back toward traditional coding for more advanced needs.
- Organizational Friction Without IT guardrails, internal apps built by business users can introduce “shadow IT” risks and maintenance headaches. Many such projects lack documentation, scale poorly, struggle with permissioning, and fail within a year. Closed ecosystems further limit flexibility, making it hard to integrate with existing dev workflows or extend functionality beyond predefined patterns.
Text-to-Apps: A promising frontier for internal tools
Internal tools have long been plagued by tradeoffs: organizations could either allocate scarce engineering resources or settle for the rigid limitations of traditional low-code platforms. But with the rise of generative AI — particularly since 2023 — a new possibility has emerged: what if anyone could build a working app by simply describing what they want?
That promise is starting to materialize. A wave of gen AI-native platforms like Lovable, Replit, Vercel v0, Figma Make, and Bolt have made it possible for users to create working prototypes and lightweight apps directly from natural language. Instead of manipulating components in a drag-and-drop builder, users now prompt AI agents that can generate UI, write logic, spin up databases, and even handle deployment.
While much of the output today is still prototypical — designed for internal validation, low-traffic usage, or throwaway testing — the direction is clear. If the current momentum continues, these platforms may soon serve as the foundation for fully deployable, production-grade internal applications.
The early indicators are promising:
- Time to prototype is shrinking from weeks to hours.
- Non-engineers, from product managers to ops leads, are building real, functional workflows.
- Early usage spans real business needs, from dashboarding and ticketing to API-based automations.
A market map of low code/internal app builders
The biggest impact we’ve seen from AI-native app builders — compared to the previous generation of tooling — comes from three advances: natural language interfaces, the ability to build and iterate rapidly, and greater flexibility and customization.
Of these, natural language interaction is key. It has unlocked a new profile of users, enabling non-technical business users (vs. more technical personas) to be able to take on more of the app building and maintenance workflow themselves.
A graph showing perceived advantages of AI-powered tools over low-code solutions.
How teams are using gen AI app builders
Use of gen AI platforms is growing across teams, particularly within design, product, and strategy functions. Here’s what’s happening on the ground:
- Internal Tools by Non-Engineers At Sears Home Services, non-technical business users built over 50 internal apps using Replit — including ticketing systems, SMS-based technician alerts, and dashboarding tools for routing and performance. Their most-used tool is a ticket manager, used daily by a 50-person parts-ordering team — with no engineering support involved. At Zillow, strategy and ops teams built a win/loss dashboard in Replit that visualizes sales funnels and customer journeys with interactive Three.js views. Created without engineering involvement, it helps leadership pinpoint what drives deal outcomes.
- Scrappy One-Offs and Specialized Tools for Engineers Some teams use these platforms to build fast, narrowly scoped utilities. At Oscar Health, engineers created a gen AI tool that scrapes the web for provider headshots and generates branded avatars — solving a longstanding UX issue in days. At Ostro, engineers used Replit to build internal apps to classify support logs with LLMs and clean pipeline data — work that previously would have required more complex dev tooling.
- Sandboxed Automation Layers Teams are also deploying gen AI tools as interface layers on top of internal APIs, typically starting in read-only mode to avoid security or write-access concerns. At Intuit, product managers use Replit to build realistic internal dashboards and campaign tools that mimic live systems, making user testing faster and more accurate. When visual quality is critical — especially charts or interactive visualizations — teams prefer Lovable. This “read-first” pattern is common across companies. At Zillow, teams commonly begin with static dashboards that consume internal data. Once permissions and governance are in place, these often evolve into write-enabled tools.
Current Limitations
- Non-Technical Users Hit a Wall: When things break, non-engineers often face cryptic error messages and endless re-prompting to fix logic they don’t fully understand. This can lead to frustration, delays, and lost productivity, undermining the promise of self-service development.
- Integration with Internal Systems Is Friction-Prone: Securely connecting to data warehouses, ERPs, or custom APIs still triggers enterprise-level hurdles: infosec reviews, authentication complexity, and missing connectors all slow adoption.
- Maintenance Is Inevitable: Even when AI speeds up prototyping, that generated code still needs to be reviewed, maintained, and upgraded over time, especially if the tool graduates to production. Without ongoing stewardship and upkeep, even lightweight internal tools can become liabilities.
- Governance Remains Immature: Most platforms lack robust access controls, versioning, or audit trails. Collaboration is often manually managed via Slack threads or duplicated projects, with few built-in guardrails for scale or sustainability.
- Prototypes Still Dominate: Nearly all current use centers on mockups or exploratory apps, not full-stack, secure internal systems. In many cases, teams discard the code after testing. The idea-to-feedback loop is faster, but the final production build still falls to engineers.
- Prompting Is Promising, but Brittle: Users regularly hit quality ceilings or formatting issues, particularly with non-standard designs or logic. Platforms are adding design tooling and collaborative editing, but creative iteration remains hands-on.
What matters in internal tool building
While many organizations initially picked up vibe coding tools like Lovable, v0, and Replit for prototyping, they’ve increasingly started to use them for internal tooling.
However, the requirements for internal tools differ from those for prototyping. While building internal tools, organizations primarily care about functionalities around:
- Security and Access Control: Internal tools often handle sensitive data, making it essential that access is limited to authorized users within the organization. Features like authentication, authorization, and data permissioning are critical in this context.
- Integrations: These applications must integrate seamlessly with various systems in an organization. These integrations are typically configured by IT, then leveraged by business users.
- Governance: While this new generation of AI app builders enables non-technical users to build and maintain apps, IT departments still require oversight — especially tools that have access to sensitive data. Governance features allow IT to monitor, manage, and control how these tools are built and used across the organization.
A graph showing the key priorities for building internal tools.
Meanwhile, users who rely on app-building tools for prototyping prioritize a different set of features. They place greater emphasis on UI/design, flexibility, and the ability to iterate quickly — and less about security, governance, and integration concerns.
A graph showing the key priorities for prototyping.
What’s Coming Next
Despite the early limitations, the shift underway is hard to ignore. Gen AI tools are not yet replacing internal software teams, but they’re already reshaping how internal software is scoped, tested, and socialized.
As these tools evolve toward deeper integrations, improved governance, and easier collaboration, they may move beyond prototyping engines to become the foundation for building and maintaining real internal apps.
Some gen AI companies have already begun hiring Internally Deployed Engineers — roles wholly dedicated to improving internal workflows using these tools.
The shift would mean:
- Prototypes that seamlessly evolve into production-ready tools
- Frontline teams creating lightweight apps without waiting on engineering
- Internal systems tailored exactly to a team’s workflow — because the team built it themselves
If the first generation of no-code tools promised accessibility, this next generation is aiming for acceleration. These apps may start as prototypes, but they may not stay that way for long.