Tareq Masoud, Country Manager, UAE, Snowflake, explains how developers are evolving into strategic decision-makers as AI and low-code tools expand their influence, while citizen developers emerge, reshaping collaboration, productivity, governance, and innovation across business and technology teams.
The role of developers is undergoing a fundamental shift. No longer confined to traditional back-end responsibilities, developers are becoming central to strategic business decision-making. Today, 62% of developers influence purchasing decisions, with nearly a third selecting their own tools independently, showing just how much autonomy and impact they now hold.
As AI becomes embedded into the core of business operations, the line between technical and commercial teams is blurring. Business users are no longer passive recipients of technology; they’re requesting specific outcomes, getting closer to the data, and expecting more from digital tools. This has led to the rise of ‘citizen developers’: technically inclined individuals within business teams who are now building apps and automations themselves, forging the business-technology link even further.
Developers are uniquely positioned to solve cross-functional problems and build scalable, governed solutions to business obstacles and goals. In the AI era, where companies are under pressure to deliver smarter, faster, and more tailored customer experiences, developers are at the heart of innovation. AI’s contribution to the region’s economy is accelerating fast, with expected annual growth rates between 20% and 34%; a clear signal of the technology’s role in future growth.
In this landscape, developers who can speak both the language of code and commercial value are becoming indispensable assets. Citizen developers will help carry that momentum forward, easing the load on traditional teams. But as this community grows and evolves, so too must the way businesses and technology providers engage with it. This is no longer a niche group; it’s a critical driver of transformation.
Rethinking the developer toolbox
One of the catalysts for this change is open source. As a key foundation for developers, open source enables faster innovation by offering ready-made tools and collaboration. Open source’s vibrant community also offers a crucial way for developers to learn, share knowledge, and solve problems together.
Likewise, AI is offering a helping hand to developers in the form of coding assistants and other generative tools. Developers are not going to be ‘replaced by AI’, though they are not writing as much code as they once did. By streamlining repetitive tasks, AI tools give developers the room to experiment and focus on higher-value tasks for the business, thus boosting overall productivity.
However, AI must, of course, be used with the appropriate guardrails. Having oversight of the end-to-end workflow from data sources to the end-user is crucial for avoiding issues around governance and security. So, while there are positives, there is also caution; business leaders must remain close to this transformation.
Empowering coders outside IT
Given the pace and demands of change, businesses are looking beyond traditional dev roles and empowering a new class of creators. With 81% of employees in the region having used generative AI at work in 2023, compared to just 61% globally, a clear signal that the appetite and readiness for new tools are already there. Citizen developers combine a ‘can-do’ attitude with enough technical aptitude to get to grips with low-code and AI-powered coding tools. This is changing the way organisations approach problems, with business leaders able to accelerate innovation independently, especially when it comes to departmental or domain-specific needs.
The growth of Python has also enabled citizen developers to get to grips with more complex problems. Python is widely accessible and has a robust ecosystem of tools and resources to support citizen developers, without requiring them to write complex boilerplate code. Enterprise platforms are also combining programming languages with AI in ways that make coding far easier with techniques such as text-to-SQL, helping drive business productivity.
While they can share the weight of work often handled by their conventional counterparts, citizen developers also introduce new challenges. Tech platforms and IT teams must ensure that resources and support are there to ensure high levels of software quality and performance.
DevRel as a business lever
A key way to support both professional developers and citizen developers is through modern, fluid DevRel (Developer Relations) strategies. As DevRel builds relationships between organisations and the developer community, as a function, it must adjust to centre on developers who are fluent in open-source and also highly AI-literate.
The growth in citizen developer numbers especially reinforces the need to be flexible. DevRel strategies have to work to support both professional developers who build and maintain secure infrastructure and less experienced citizen developers who will benefit from templates, training, and guardrails. Organisations must work to enable both groups to collaborate, share insights, and innovate safely in a unified environment, consolidating disparate approaches and creating the foundation of future success.
This will foster stronger relationships between businesses and developers and help developers advocate for certain tools and innovations. Developer feedback will become crucial for identifying what can be improved, and will fuel innovation over time. As citizen developers are also very much the users as well as the builders, their feedback specifically can become a goldmine.
From code silos to collaborative creation
The future of software development isn’t just being shaped by open-source tools, AI models, or the growing accessibility of development platforms. While these are all powerful forces, what will ultimately define success is how well businesses foster collaboration between professional developers and citizen developers.
We’re no longer in a world where coding is confined to one team or function. Traditional developers now operate in an environment that demands speed, agility, and constant alignment with business priorities. Citizen developers can help fill this gap. They bring rapid experimentation and frontline insight, while developers bring the depth of knowledge needed to build reliable, scalable systems.
When companies learn to combine these strengths, the benefits go beyond reducing IT backlogs or alleviating talent shortages. They unlock new potential: faster product cycles, smarter decision-making, and the ability to adapt quickly in an environment that’s only getting more complex.
