“ Coding with English allows people to build basic, unsophisticated systems or working prototypes,” WiseTech Global CEO Zubin Appoo, told the Journal of Commerce.“ They’ re not yet able to build anything with production strength. Our [ intellectual property ] is our deep domain expertise, understanding how players connect to each other and what the industry needs. And the connectivity that we bring across everybody.
“ The interface with government authorities, denied party lists, with entities from manufacturing to demand, that’ s not something that AI can or will ever be able to do,” he added.
‘ Nuanced’ viewpoints
There is a variety of views on whether coding tools will ever have that capability, or whether they will be a part of the arsenal of software vendors rather than an existential threat to them.
“ I would agree there’ s vulnerability,” said Jake Hoffman, chief technology officer at Gnosis Freight, which provides container management software for shippers.“ Understanding the nuance for each customer is the way we approach it. The demand from customers will get higher and they will either build this all themselves or seek a partner using these tools.”
Hoffman said SaaS providers can use the tools on offer to“ scale the nuances,” instead of viewing the need to cater to
www. joc. com individual preferences from customers as a cost burden. Aaron Levie, CEO of content management software vendor Box, said in an August post on X that in“ workflows where the cost of getting something wrong is high, enterprises will have a tendency to pick core platforms for their most common, important and repeatable functions.”
But Levie said“ there will also be a long tail of experiences where users can generate micro apps on the fly when they need quick applications or use cases automated, when there’ s no obvious piece of software to do that with.”
In general, Levie said that code generation tools will be used to build software in what he described as a“ personal context” that only affects a single user or small team and not an entire enterprise.
“ But I would have different expectations in an enterprise context,” he wrote.“ The point of much of the software that we use in the enterprise is largely to just keep our processes on track and moving forward reliably.
“ For any of these workflows and data sets, you need a high degree of stable patterns that you know will work every single time,” Levie added.“ You’ re relying on the software vendor to think about the underlying process, so you don’ t have to keep the software up to date with new regulations or industry trends.”
email: eric. johnson @ spglobal. com
November 3, 2025 | Journal of Commerce 37