I had the pleasure of speaking at Nasscom India Leadership Forum 2017 earlier this spring, during which I talked all about augmented reality and the next generation of mobile technology. I also had the opportunity to walk the red carpet (a first for me, and many of my colleagues, I’m sure) and participate in a “Meet the Disruptors” interview.

We are incredibly excited to announce the release of Visualizer® 7.3, which introduces new features that give developers and designers even more tools to create amazing mobile apps.

The speed at which digital innovation is disrupting business models is truly mindboggling. In the past ten years, I’ve seen some dramatic transformations happening across many industries. New expectations of consumers are significantly impacting how businesses deliver goods, services, and experiences, especially with the dawn of the millennial generation. Today, apps are no longer a cool thing to have, but essential to survival for businesses in most industries.

Next-gen tech is creating challenges when it comes to thinking about what’s next for your app development strategy. Many of these technologies can increase complexity and force difficult technology choices. At the same time, they are promising to revolutionize not just app development, but day-to-day life.

Kony recently held an App Playground event–also known as a hackathon–with Rentokil Initial, a pest control and hygiene company based in the UK, during which we worked with their team to develop a functioning mobile app. Rentokil employees split up into three teams, and each created a different mobile app using Kony Visualizer®.

As the demand by businesses for mobile apps grows, so does the need for tools that allow people of all skill levels to create well-designed, usable mobile apps. The market for low-code mobile development platforms is growing because of this need, and those tools must not only support a variety of workloads, but a variety of skills levels as well. At Kony, we refer to this movement as the democratization of mobile app development, and providing developers with an easy-to-use, intuitive, low-code development platform is one of our top priorities.

Few industries have been affected by technology disruption as much as retail banking. Despite banks having the reputation for being “slow to change,” it is phenomenal how fast the industry is evolving. For more established banks, though, transforming to serve the changing habits and requirements of today’s consumers continues to pose challenges–while also creating new, untapped opportunities.

I’m often asked for recommendations for innovative features and capabilities for various financial institutions, so I compiled a partial list of my top features. These are the things I would love to build for a bank or credit union if I owned the digital product for that institution.

Since Apple launched the iPhone, the explosive growth in “smart” mobile devices and consumer applications over the past 9 years has been phenomenal. With that growth has come huge opportunities for companies to make dramatic changes to both the way they work and how they engage with staff, business partners, and customers.