Survey Finds 48% of Non-Engineers Are Already Shipping Production Software; AI Will Enable Even More

Retool, the leading platform for internal software development trusted by over 10,000 companies worldwide, announced the launch of its AI AppGen platform, designed for enterprise environments. Unveiled at the inaugural Retool Summit for enterprise builders, the announcement comes on the heels of Retool reaching a milestone of automating over 100 million hours of work and coincides with new survey data revealing dramatic shifts in how internal builders work—as domain experts demonstrate new building capabilities and 91% of all builders report changes to how they work.

With executives pushing AI productivity mandates, organizations face an unprecedented scaling challenge: the gap between prototype and production. While AI tools have made it easier than ever to generate code and create prototypes, most solutions can’t bridge the gap to production-ready applications that work with real enterprise data and governance requirements.

Retool’s survey of 1,100+ internal builders confirms this trend is widespread, with 66% of respondents reporting their organizations have implemented AI productivity mandates. The survey reveals that domain experts have gained significant autonomous building capabilities, with 48% of non-engineers saying they can now build directly. These builders span operations managers, product managers, data analysts, and finance professionals across business functions.

“AI has dropped the bar to prototype, but the bar to ship hasn’t moved,” said David Hsu, CEO of Retool. “Most AI tools generate code that still requires extensive integration work to become production applications. Organizations are discovering that their biggest AI productivity gains come from platforms that understand their existing data, security, and infrastructure from day one.”

“We’re excited to partner with Retool as they advance AI-assisted development in the enterprise. At Brex, speed and security aren’t trade-offs—they’re requirements,” said Camilla Matias, COO of Brex. “Now by adding AI that understands our actual data and security requirements, our teams can move at startup velocity while maintaining bank-grade governance. We’re eager for tools like these that enable our teams to build production-ready applications, not just prototypes.”

Read More: SalesTech for Stickiness: Why Service Layers Matter More Than Features?

Retool’s 2025 Builder Report: Builders Drive Productivity Results

Survey data demonstrates what happens when building is no longer limited to engineering teams:

• 80% can now go from problem identification to solution implementation without requiring support from other teams
• 65% better meet or exceed leadership productivity expectations, with domain experts driving measurable business outcomes. Among those working under explicit AI mandates, that number climbs to 74%.
• 51% now solving issues in “days/weeks instead of months/quarters”
• 46% now recognized by leadership as someone who can “make things happen” and 35% becoming “go-to” problem solvers

“We’re seeing a fundamental shift in how organizations think about software development,” said Hsu. “The future belongs to companies that can democratize building capabilities while maintaining enterprise governance. Retool makes that possible .”

“I used to have a freelancer that I would have to wait for weeks in between getting features implemented. Now with Retool’s AppGen capabilities, I’m able to roll out pretty much anything I want on my own, with 10x speed,” said Joel MacPherson, CFO/COO of TrueOps.

Additional information about the 2025 Builder Report can be found here.

Enterprise-Ready AI AppGen

Retool’s new AppGen capabilities represent the next evolution of the platform, expanding who can build software within enterprises to meet productivity demands in the AI era.

Unlike consumer AI coding tools that generate isolated code requiring manual integration, Retool creates production-ready applications that inherit existing enterprise infrastructure, security policies, and data governance automatically.

Key capabilities include:

• Apps on your data: Access live production data from PostgreSQL, Salesforce, Databricks, and 100+ enterprise systems while respecting existing permissions and schemas
• Secure by default, built on what works: Automatically inherit enterprise security (SSO, RBAC, compliance) plus your team’s trusted building blocks—proven queries, components, and workflows that already power your business
• Mixed-mode development: Seamlessly transition between AI-assisted generation, visual development, and traditional coding within the same IDE
• In your cloud: Runs natively in your environment—cloud, self-hosted, or VPC—while maintaining your security perimeter and data control

“The difference is enterprise readiness,” said Hsu. “Domain experts can describe a solution in natural language and get a production application that works with their actual business data and inherits all security policies automatically.”