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As the no-code development market matures, some sectors such as web development are much advanced while others are just emerging. Of the latter, no-code AI is a prime example. By now there is no doubt that AI is important in business today, not just in the future. However, for most small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), it is still out of reach as it is usually too expensive.
Much of the expense related to AI goes into the technical expertise necessary to build, deploy, and run AI programs. Now, with the emergence of no-code AI, SMBs have a chance to explore the technology using the people and resources they already have.
In this article, we will go through six of the best no-code AI tools to get a sense of the landscape. There are many more tools and more still in development but we believe this list will give you an idea of what it is like to use a no-code AI platform. (Read also: Is No-Code Development About to Go Mainstream?)
1. Akkio
Akkio is an end-to-end no-code AI platform designed for sales, marketing, and financial activities. The platform promises to guide you through turning your data into live AI predictions in less than 10 minutes, without writing code or hiring a data expert.
Being “end-to-end” means that Akkio lets you build, deploy, and integrate AI models on a single platform. It offers a sufficiently visual process allowing you to see how well your model works and reports on various inputs and their corresponding outputs. With Akkio, you can integrate data from multiple sources to draw more accurate conclusions and make sales and marketing predictions.
The platform is completely free to try after sign-up and it also offers a permanently free plan.
2. Apteo
Apteo leverages your existing customer base to help you make more repeat sales. The platform analyzes your customer database to find out which products certain customers are likely to buy next. This information allows you to craft better messages for more accurate targeted upselling.
Apteo is ready to integrate with many of the top ecommerce tools including Shopify, Square, Stripe, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, and Wix. To use, you can install the app from the app store if you are on Shopify or create a new account and connect your online store or payments system. The system requires a few hours to download your database, analyze your customers, and give reports.
The platform offers 4 pricing packages starting with a free plan that accepts a database of up to 500 customers.
3. Runway
Runway is made for creators who want to turn their visuals and data into AI fodder without coding. The tool allows you to transform and improve images, videos, and even text data using machine learning technology. This lets you reach professional standards simply and quite inexpensively.
To use Runway, you don’t need to download any programs as it is all done on the web. Standout features of the platform include AI-powered multiband video, accurate depth maps, and relative motion analysis. You can also collaborate and edit with your team remotely.
Runway has a free Starter package that offers 2GB of cloud storage. Creators can get up to 100GB of storage for $35 a month. There are also two additional plans: Pro (2TB) and Enterprise (custom solutions.)
4. Google AutoML
Google AutoML is the no-code AI solution from the tech giant. It is a feature-rich suite of AI products that enables you to train high quality machine learning models tailored to your unique business needs.
While it is by definition a no-code solution, Google AutoML does appear to be technical as it says itself that developers need to have “limited machine learning expertise”. Additionally, according to its quickstart guide, just getting started with the platform would be quite difficult for a completely non-technical business owner just sampling out AI. All the same, if you can withstand the learning curve or spare a budget for a developer with “limited machine learning expertise” Google AutoML has a wide range of features that when utilized can provide immense benefit to your business.
The platform offers a pay-as-you-go pricing structure which means that you only pay for what you use.
5. Amazon SageMaker
Amazon SageMaker is a cloud-based machine learning platform from another FAANG/MAMAA company. It is a fully-managed solution that lets data scientists and developers build, train, and deploy machine learning models quickly and easily. The platform makes automatic what would otherwise be tediously manual work of building an AI pipeline.
However, like Google’s AutoML, SageMaker is technically no-code, but abundantly technical for someone getting started with AI. There is no question about its functionality – Amazon says it’s “the most comprehensive ML service”. And there is no question about the expertise that went into developing the platform, with the company boasting two decades of experience building real-world machine learning applications. To reap the full benefits, you should assign this role to a developer or data scientist.
The platform adopts a pay-as-you-go pricing model.
6. Lobe
Lobe is a free desktop program created by Microsoft to help users build customized AI models simply by clicking – no coding necessary. You can just show examples of what you want it to learn and it will train a machine learning model to identify similar things. Lobe is available for Windows and Mac.
While it is very easy to use, Lobe is not feature-rich. Currently, it is best suited for image classification and is a great way to get started with projects about apps that identify objects from pictures. At the start of your project, the system automatically selects the suitable machine learning architecture, taking a lot of the complexity out of the way. Your data stays on the computer, so you don’t have to upload to the cloud, and you can export your models to any platforms that you need.
The program is free to download and use on your Windows or Mac computer.
Lobe can be compared with Azure AI which is a more feature-rich suite of tools from Microsoft; also no-code but is more fairly compared to Google AutoML as they are similarly complex to start and use. (Read also: Will Low-Code Development Bring Data Science to the Masses?)
Conclusion
To choose a no-code AI tool, make sure that:
- It offers what you need.
- It is usable for you or the person assigned to it.
No-code AI offers many advantages for SMBs. Above all, it makes the technology accessible, more affordable, and less intimidating. Using simple clicking, dragging, and dropping, non-technical teams are able to bring their ideas to life and test various hypotheses.
As seen above, some platforms are designed for specific types of important business processes such as marketing, ecommerce, and visual design. By choosing the one most suited you your needs and level of expertise, your SMB is sure to benefit from the latest in no-code AI technology.
