State of AI Automation & No-Code 2026
By 2026 low-code and no-code platforms had become the default way enterprises build software, while agentic AI added a faster-growing, autonomous layer on top of traditional robotic process automation.
Automation has reached an inflection point: Gartner projects 70% of new enterprise applications in 2026 will use low-code or no-code technologies, up from under 25% in 2023. At the same time, agentic AI is moving from pilots to production faster than any prior enterprise technology wave, reshaping what 'automation' means.
Source: McKinsey
No-code is now the enterprise default
The shift away from hand-coded software is structural, not seasonal. Gartner forecasts that 70% of new applications developed by enterprises in 2026 will rely on low-code or no-code tools, compared with less than 25% in 2023. The market behind that shift is sizable: Gartner projects the low-code development technologies market at $44.5 billion in 2026. Crucially, the builders are increasingly non-technical, with Gartner predicting 80% of low-code users will come from outside formal IT departments.
Agentic AI is the fastest-moving layer
On top of established automation sits a new, faster-growing category. The agentic AI enterprise workflow automation market was valued at $10.86 billion in 2025 and is forecast to grow at a 40% CAGR through 2034. McKinsey's 2025 State of AI survey found 23% of organizations were already scaling an agentic AI system somewhere in their enterprise, with another 39% experimenting. That adoption curve is steeper than cloud or mobile at comparable stages.
RPA endures but is being absorbed
Robotic process automation remains a large market even as agentic systems rise. The RPA market was valued at $28.31 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $35.27 billion in 2026, expanding at a 24.2% CAGR toward 2035. Rather than replacing RPA outright, agentic AI is layering decision-making and exception-handling on top of the rule-based bots that handle high-volume, repetitive tasks, blending the two into hybrid automation stacks.
Distribution and accessibility drive adoption
The platforms that win are the ones non-technical teams can adopt without engineers. Make reports over 250,000 active businesses on its platform, while Zapier is used by 69% of Fortune 1000 companies, reflecting how deeply automation tooling has penetrated large organizations. The defining product trend of 2025-2026 has been native AI integration: the major no-code platforms now ship built-in connections to OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google models alongside ready-made AI-agent templates.
FAQ
How widely will no-code be used by 2026?
Gartner projects that 70% of new applications developed by enterprises in 2026 will use low-code or no-code technologies, up from less than 25% in 2023, with 80% of low-code users coming from outside IT.
How big is the automation market?
Gartner pegs the low-code development market at roughly $44.5 billion in 2026, while RPA was valued at about $28.31 billion in 2025 and the newer agentic AI workflow segment at $10.86 billion.
Is agentic AI replacing RPA?
Not directly. RPA continues growing at a ~24% CAGR, but agentic AI is being layered on top of rule-based bots to add decision-making and exception-handling, creating hybrid automation stacks rather than wholesale replacement.
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Compiled by ToolGlance from publicly reported data; figures link to their sources. Updated 2026-05-30.