The Neuron: AI Explained How 48% of Non-Engineers Are Shipping Production Software (with Retool CEO David Hsu)
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Nov 17, 2025 
David Hsu, CEO of Retool, dives into the exciting shift where 48% of non-engineers are now shipping production software. He discusses how AI is democratizing software development, predicting that engineers may stop coding internal apps entirely within the next 18-24 months. David highlights insights from Retool's survey of over 10,000 companies and introduces AppGen, a platform empowering business users to create applications effortlessly. He also shares the importance of internal tools and how they represent the biggest opportunity in the development landscape.
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Platform For Tomorrow's Developers
- Retool enables "tomorrow's developers" to build production software on top of enterprise data.
- The platform targets non-engineers who need to ship real apps connected to company systems.
Non-Engineers Are Shipping Real Apps
- Non-engineer builders rose from ~5% to ~55% at Retool over several years.
- Increased technical literacy plus AI-assisted SQL/JS generation accelerated that shift recently.
Iterate LLM Outputs Rapidly
- Use LLMs to generate SQL or UI drafts, then iterate and correct quickly.
- Combine human feedback with LLM outputs to produce usable queries and components.