AiThority Interview with Tiago Azevedo, CIO at Outsystems

Tiago Azevedo, CIO at Outsystems chats about AI-driven innovations at OutSystems, AI in enterprise software adoption, and future of software development in this Interview…

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Hello Tiago! Welcome to our AiThority interview series. Please share about your journey and role at OutSystems.

I joined OutSystems as Chief Information Officer in September 2019. At OutSystems, I am responsible for leading the Digital Team in building an AI-powered business architecture that secures a frictionless customer experience and enables OutSystems’ growth ambition. I have 20+ years of experience, the first 10 in management consulting with Accenture and the latter as a CIO across bluechip companies in several countries, including online, publishing and broadcast media environments, in telecommunications, high tech and energy, where I led large-scale digital transformations.

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How do you see AI driving developer productivity within the OutSystems platform today?

GenAI is revolutionizing developer productivity within the OutSystems platform by automating complex tasks and streamlining workflows. One of the most significant examples at OutSystems is how we’ve leveraged GenAI in our own customer support. After launching a GenAI-driven customer support application, we saw a dramatic increase in the number of support queries and incidents resolved autonomously, without the need for human intervention. This freed up our developer team to focus on higher level tasks, which significantly improved efficiency. The results were so impactful that we’ve set even more ambitious targets, aiming to scale this success by seven times in the near future. The potential for AI to optimize processes like this is transforming not only how our developers work, but also the outcomes they can achieve for our customers.

What are the key AI-driven innovations that OutSystems offers to help companies build and deploy software faster?

OutSystems is accelerating software development and deployment with a suite of innovative AI-driven tools, led by Mentor (formerly known as Project Morpheus), a comprehensive AI initiative designed to enhance the developer experience. Unlike many vendors that simply add AI as a feature, OutSystems is focused on integrating AI to optimize every stage of the development lifecycle. Mentor brings together GenAI capabilities to assist developers in writing code faster, automating tasks, and ensuring that applications meet high standards for quality and security. With built-in governance and oversight, these AI-driven innovations help companies deploy software faster without compromising on control or compliance. Additional functionality, such as AI Agent Builder, will further infuse GenAI into everyday processes, delegating common tasks to one or multiple AI agents working together. This thoughtful integration of AI empowers developers to focus on creativity and problem-solving, while the platform handles the heavy lifting.

How can companies best leverage GenAI to transform and optimise the software development lifecycle?

Companies can best leverage GenAI to transform and optimize the software development lifecycle, dramatically accelerate project timelines, and enhance system architecture. The integration of AI agents into traditional digital systems, previously built with components like portals, workflows, logic engines, and business rules, introduces a transformative approach to constructing business applications. GenAI can also enhance productivity through capabilities such as predictive analytics and real-time code suggestions. However, before GenAI can fully optimize workflows, organizations must first ensure that they have the right infrastructure in place, such as scalable platforms and clean, relevant datasets, then assess which tasks in their portfolio can and should be automated altogether.

It’s also essential to align AI adoption with company goals, ensuring that GenAI tools are integrated thoughtfully into existing business processes to improve collaboration and productivity, without adding unnecessary complexity. By addressing these fundamental challenges, businesses can unlock the full potential of GenAI to drive innovation, reduce development time, and improve software quality.

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What are organisations’ major difficulties when adopting AI in enterprise software, and how do OutSystems solutions address them?

Organizations often face challenges with legacy systems when trying to adopt new technologies. While these systems can offer management benefits, they tend to limit flexibility and slow down the pace of innovation. In decentralized environments, tasks that could be completed in hours or days may take weeks or even months when working with outdated, bulky architectures.

Many companies also lack an innovation mindset and — just as important — a process to reach innovation goals. Too often, organizations think big on their GenAI ambitions, but fail to establish strong foundations that allow them to adopt GenAI at scale across multiple use cases and scenarios. It’s important to start small and scale fast so as not to get hung up on one single initiative, stalling progress and innovation. With strong foundations and a scalable approach to implementation that can be applied across use cases, organizations can actually start seeing these initiatives move forward.

At OutSystems, we’ve used AI in our products for years, but realized we needed greater technical agility to fully embrace GenAI. Over the past few years, we’ve transitioned to a services-based architecture, a process that, while challenging, was essential for enabling the speed and scalability that GenAI demands. By removing legacy systems that were holding us back and focusing on opportunities for innovation, we created a solid foundation for developing AI applications. We also carefully selected and refined the datasets that would be most useful for the AI solutions we’re building. This ground-up approach ensures that GenAI tools are relevant and scalable across the business, becoming a true partner and asset to our teams.

What role does AI play in helping companies handle “complex projects” and achieve strategic goals?

 AI can revolutionize organizational performance and empower teams by optimizing workflows, enhancing efficiency, and helping companies manage complex projects while achieving their strategic priorities. By automating routine tasks and providing real-time insights, AI allows teams to focus on high-priority and complex initiatives that more directly influence long-term goals. For complex projects, AI’s ability to analyze datasets, predict potential risk, and optimize resource allocation ensures smoother execution.

GenAI, when integrated thoughtfully, can significantly improve a skilled worker’s performance. However, improper use of AI may lead to inefficiencies, which highlights the importance of aligning AI tools with the company’s specific needs and workflows. By refining AI inputs and prompts, organizations can ensure that AI becomes a strategic asset, driving innovation and supporting better decision-making.

Looking ahead, share any five AI trends or technologies you are most excited about for the future of software development.

In 2025, I’m most excited about how AI will enhance collaboration and strengthen business alignment within organizations, improve data accuracy and reliability, encourage new skill development across teams, and support the entire software development lifecycle. I also look forward to seeing how the development of interactive, combined AI agents will enhance automation efforts and productivity. To put it simply, in the coming year we’ll continue our journey towards unlocking the massive potential behind this incredible tech — propelling organizations closer to their long-term goals by working smarter.

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