17 Software Development Trends You Can’t Afford To Miss in 2025

Keeping up with software development trends is responsible for shaping your business, How?

Running a software-based business has challenges, and knowing the trends can help overcome some of them. One key challenge for enterprises is reducing higher operational costs due to inflation.

So, if you are struggling to cope with the higher costs and reduced ROI, knowing the trends makes sense. It helps optimize processes and reduce operational costs. What else it can do is,

• Help you adapt to changing market demands
• Get a competitive edge
• Improve returns on investments
• Enter new markets
• Enhance user experience

Staying ahead distinguishes businesses in the evolving tech landscape. Innovations like cloud-native architectures, next-generation security, and AI-driven development are rapidly transforming the industry.

As a responsible software development company with over 12 years of experience, we monitor trends. This allows us to develop future-ready solutions to help SMEs and enterprises in healthcare, finance, education, e-commerce, and more.

Our experts have compiled 17 key software development trends defining the tech landscape in the coming year. Read about them below.

1. Cloud Focused Software Development

Cloud computing has redefined software development, adapting to new technologies. It is now entering a transformation phase, with many businesses developing applications on the cloud.

But what’s made the cloud-first approach so crucial?

It’s the emergence of artificial intelligence(AI)!

Digital transformations led by AI integrations and advanced software technologies require a cloud-first approach. AI-based integrations require systems that can store, analyze, and process large amounts of data, and this is where cloud resources become crucial.

The cloud-focused software development trend is also redefining how enterprises build internal systems. Enterprises can leverage the cloud to modernize internal and external systems.

Tips To Leverage Cloud-Focused Software Development

• Migrate the non-essential apps first and ensure sensitive data protection
• Use a microservices architecture to ensure better update flexibility.
• Leverage containers to deploy cloud-based microservices effectively.
• Use Kubernetes to orchestrate containers efficiently.
• Ensure cloud monitoring efficiency using observability principles.

Choosing between cloud service providers can become complex if you take a cloud-first approach. AWS, Azure, and Google offer services enhancing cloud-based software development.

Selecting the ideal service provider requires professional guidance. For instance, engaging with Google Cloud consulting services can enhance your software’s performance. Likewise, Azure consulting services can help you boost ROI. Alternatively, AWS consulting services can provide a comprehensive cloud strategy if you choose AWS.

While the cloud-first approach is becoming a key software development trend, it is still centralized. However, the decentralized approach is changing the entire game!

2. Applying Blockchain Beyond Crypto

The conventional use case of crypto-based payments on Blockchain has now transformed. One of the latest software development trends is using Blockchain to decentralize the entire SDLC (Software Development Lifecycle). This offers companies a competitive advantage, improving efficiency and innovation.

Software development processes are often complex, with multiple teams and code mergers occurring in real time. A centralized approach exposes these flaws. However, a decentralized approach makes them far more efficient, allowing reduced deployment time and ensuring better security.

But it’s not just the development process.

Blockchain Use Cases Beyond Cryptocurrencies

• Logistics Operations– Blockchain-based supply chain and logistics software development enable efficient operations, ensuring real-time scalability and secure data access.
• Healthcare Data Management: Blockchain’s immutability allows providers to ensure secure data access and compliance with key information protection standards.
• DeFi Software Development– Decentralized Finance Software is a key case in which Blockchain and smart contracts are used.
• Sustainable Business Ops: Blockchain technology allows businesses to track carbon emissions and securely trade carbon credits, ensuring sustainability.
• DApps Development: Decentralized app development is another way to use smart contracts to obtain access to services and features.

Both cloud and Blockchain are key software development trends, but if you think of a trend disrupting the business world, it is AI.

3. AI/ML Software Development

Machine learning algorithms have evolved to revolutionize AI software solutions for operational excellence, leading to the rise of AI adoption across sectors. In the current era of advanced manufacturing and logistics, physical AI systems have become one of the major software engineering trends. However, they are not the same as conventional software development approaches.

The development of physical AI systems carries unique considerations.

Safety requirements, hardware integration, and real-world testing create a fundamentally different engineering environment than pure software development.

— Ashish Kapoor (@akapoor_av8r) February 25, 2025

Physical AI systems require a combination of software excellence and hardware component integration. For example, if you plan to build a physical AI system for warehouse management, it will need a blend of actuators, robotics, process automation, and embedded IoT solutions.

Other use cases of AI systems across industries are,

• Healthcare– AI-based software in the healthcare industry enables more brilliant diagnosis, remote patient monitoring, and automation of key administrative tasks.
• Manufacturing– AI enables manufacturing businesses to use advanced data analytics, improving processes for optimal output.
• FinTech– Using AI in FinTech, businesses can reduce risks and make better lending decisions using advanced credit scoring.
• Transportation: Businesses can use machine learning algorithms to reduce fuel consumption, optimize routes, and automate tasks.

Besides AI, cloud, and Blockchain, low code/no code development is another key software development trend that can help optimize your project ROI.

4. Low-Code/No-Code Development

Low-code/no-code platforms have transformed the entire software development industry, reducing the time and effort needed to build apps. These platforms help you create software using drag-and-drop features. It does not require technical expertise and also offers reduced time-to-market.

Low-code or no-code platforms help you deploy apps faster, enabling a competitive edge. This is why more enterprises are embracing low-code or no-code development. These purpose-built Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) offer easy software creation tools.

Enterprises can use this approach to build custom software leveraging the SaaS infrastructure. It is also helpful for creating relational databases that are web-hosted and accessible remotely.

Top Tools To Use For No-Code/Low-Code Development

5. Rise in Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)

A key trend in the software industry is to blend web development and mobile app development, leveraging progressive web applications. It offers a more convenient way to interact with a service or product. This trait has made PWA an attractive software development trend.

What makes PWAs so attractive?

• Seamless user experience
• No installations needed
• Lower memory footprint
• Faster loading time
• Offline capabilities
• Improved customer satisfaction.

PWA has become one of the key trends in software development for eCommerce operations. However, understanding the use cases is essential to leverage PWAs for your projects. Key examples include Alibaba, Spotify, Google, and Forbes.

6. Emphasis on Cybersecurity For Software Development

The software industry is increasingly focused on cybersecurity, which is why there is a growing trend of software development focused on cybersecurity in recent years. Another reason is the rise in cybersecurity risks. As 72% of World Economic Forum survey respondents indicated, the increase in cybersecurity risks has also contributed to this trend.

Many enterprises are developing software for security monitoring, data access management, and information protection. Cybersecurity is also crucial for enterprises seeking to ensure compliance with significant data regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and AML.

Software development focused on cybersecurity has multiple uses across various industries, including healthcare, education, manufacturing, and logistics. Take the example of the healthcare sector. If you are a medical practitioner, compliance with HIPAA is crucial. Creating such software will need strategic HIPAA-compliant healthcare app development.

Latest Software Development Trends in Cybersecurity

• AI-driven Threat detection: Enterprises are creating custom threat detection systems by leveraging machine learning algorithms and the latest software development technology.
• Applying Observability– Leveraging software engineering trends in observability, businesses can build systems with real-time monitoring and logging capabilities.
• Advanced Encryptions– Enterprises are now building advanced software systems with encryptions that can resist modern cyberattacks.

7. Augmented Reality (AR) & Virtual Reality (VR)

AR/VR has changed how users interact with businesses, and if you haven’t used it for yours, you are missing out on one of the top software development trends. How?

AR/VR enables brands to make virtual product experiences come alive. Your customers need to know how a product may look on them or in their space, and with AR/VR, this is easy. They can use your web app to create virtual elements that resemble the product.

There is no need to visit a showroom and wait in a queue in the changing room. However, the fashion industry is not the only one benefiting from virtual reality software development.

8. Microservices & API-First Architecture

Microservices have been a key software development trend for some time now. However, they have gained momentum over the years with a focus on API-first architecture. Microservices allow businesses to scale their offerings quickly, reducing app disruption. They are a suite of services, each independent of the others and connected through Application Programming Interfaces(APIs).

Implementing microservices makes isolating a service effortless and does not hamper the user experience. This is especially crucial when continuously improving software and frequently releasing updates. API-first architecture design and development are also key software engineering trends.

If you use the API-first approach, the first step is to decide which type of API to design, then build an application. With API-first software development, you can implement the agile methodology and leverage a continuous improvement approach. This will help you integrate feedback with each iteration, ensuring high-performing software.

9. DevOps & DevSecOps Adoption

DevOps and DevSecOps are two key trends in software development that are breaking the conventionally siloed teams. DevOps is more of a culture organizations can embrace to make software development efficient. So, if you are planning to integrate DevOps, here are the key benefits to expect,

• You will get cross-functional teams, which boosts productivity
• Your processes will be streamlined
• You will have faster deployments automated through CI/CD pipelines
• Your software will go through continuous improvements.

But is DevSecOps any different?

While DevOps enables seamless collaborations between development and production teams, DevSecOps adds a security team to the mix! DevSecOps is a cybersecurity-focused trend in the software industry. Implementing DevSecOps has many benefits.

Benefits of DevSecOps For Your Organization

• Collaboration across security, dev, and production departments ensures reduced code errors.
• Developers focus more on core functionalities than dropping everything and implementing security patches.
• DevSecOps ensures better compliance with the data protection standards.
• Threat response time is improved, ensuring better cybersecurity and system resilience.

10. Internet of Things (IoT)-Based Software Development

The use of IoT in healthcare, manufacturing, and logistics businesses has become commonplace. It enables data capture remotely. This data becomes vital for enterprises to improve operational efficiency. Take an example of the remote patient monitoring systems, which leverage IoT devices to record patient data. Similarly, logistics companies are building IoT-based fleet management software to improve operational capabilities.

However, the IoT system does not work alone on a couple of sensors. It needs embedded software to interpret the data into insights that businesses can use to their advantage. The embedded software development process needs strategic planning to integrate API-based systems and IoT solutions. Apart from the embedded software, IoT systems also include several components, like,

• IoT devices play a critical role in capturing data using embedded sensors and software.
• Sensors collect data measuring physical properties like temperature, humidity, and pressure.
• IoT devices are connected to the system through communication protocols like Wifi, Bluetooth, and Zigbee.
• The user interface of the IoT-based apps allows companies to visualize the data.
• Data analytics platforms help convert data into important operational insights.

11. Sustainable Software Development

Software is the backbone of all innovative solutions designed to track the impact of climate and environmental issues. However, the entire software development lifecycle contributes to the growing carbon footprint. This is why green software development has become one of the key trends.

Developing sustainable solutions is the future of software technology innovation, many enterprises are working on. These software have low carbon footprints and help businesses reduce their environmental impact.

Key Sustainable Software Development Trends

A significant impact of software development projects is the cloud carbon footprint. One data center consumes electricity that can power more than 50,000 homes. So, if you are aiming for sustainable software development, here are two key trends to follow to reduce the impact on the environment,

• FinOps– Financial Operations, or FinOps, is a practice that reduces cloud costs through resource optimization, ensuring a lower environmental impact. The FinOps framework will help your IT and DevOps teams collaborate on finance, resource optimization, and cutting down on cloud costs.
• GreenOps– is the latest software development trend. It involves leveraging best practices to reduce energy and water consumption in data centers.

12. AI-Generated Code & Autonomous Testing

The introduction of large language models(LLMs) has transformed operations across industries. AI’s generative capabilities have given businesses the ability to generate unique data. However, the most significant AI trends in software development revolve around automation. AI empowers process automation, ensuring faster development.

As NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang says, “Software is eating the world, … but AI is eating software.”

AI is gaining traction in automating repetitive coding tasks. Many enterprises, including Fortune 500 companies, use AI to build software code. In fact, according to an Anthropic report, AI is used extensively in automating computer and mathematical jobs.

Interesting! Based on “The @AnthropicAI Economic Index” (millions of Claude conversations) AI usage is currently concentrated in software development and technical writing.

TL;DR:
💻 Computer & Mathematical jobs dominate AI usage (37.2% of queries) despite being only 3.4% of… pic.twitter.com/Lx6UMXKsfg

— Philipp Schmid (@_philschmid) February 10, 2025

So, there is no denying that AI-based coding automation has become the latest software development trend. But going beyond coding, AI is also changing how decisions are made for software development projects. However, interpreting AI’s deep insights and deploying strategic processes require software development consulting expertise.

AI is a software development trend that is not restricted to coding automation or strategic project deployments. Therefore, many other key use cases exist for AI in software development.

Key Use Cases For AI-Based Software Development

• Requirement Analysis– Generative AI enables software developers to automate user story generation and requirement analysis.
• Design Automation– AI can help create design architecture, reducing software development costs and enhancing the entire process flow.
• Development Expertise– Automating code generation with AI is commonplace, but maintaining consistency, translation, and debugging will become efficient with these ML models.
• Testing Automation– Using generative capabilities, testing automation can be achieved by automating test case writing and execution.
• Deployment & Maintenance– With AI, you can deploy CI/CD pipelines efficiently, automate Infrastructure as code(IaC) scripting, and monitor software performance efficiently.

13. Edge Computing Expansion

Edge computing is growing rapidly, especially with the increased demand for infrastructure management. Edge devices have been enabling advanced capabilities across industries. For example, they allow remote diagnostics and telemedicine features to improve healthcare diagnosis. By leveraging the expertise of a telemedicine app development company with edge computing, healthcare businesses can optimize the data infrastructure.

Similarly, edge computing has become a trend in software development across industries. Edge computing architecture consists of,

• Edge Devices are hardware endpoints with processing capabilities. They include IoT sensors, industrial controllers, and autonomous vehicles.
• Edge Nodes are intermediate processing units like micro data centers. These gateways collect data from different edge devices and transmit it to the central cloud system.
• Cloud Infrastructure is the centralized system where data is managed along with the localized processing capabilities.

14. 5G-Enabled Applications

5G-based apps have transformed software development with faster loading speeds and seamless data transmissions. From IoT-based solutions to embedded software and decentralized architecture, 5G enables advanced solutions.

Software built with 5G network capabilities enables an enhanced user experience. If you are planning to leverage 5G-based app development, some of the key use cases are,

• On-demand applications
• AR/VR apps
• Music/Video streaming apps
• Cloud gaming applications
• FinTech apps

15. Digital Twin Technology

Digital twins help you create a replica of the physical object, system, or process. It allows you to simulate real-life scenarios and possible outcomes. This leads to better decision-making, especially during strategic planning processes. Creating digital twins for your processes requires software development expertise, depending on the type of twin you need.

Types of Digital Twins

• Component twins represent one part of an entire system digitally.
• Asset twins represent two or more components that work together to create a system.
• System twins offer a higher level of abstraction than assets or component twins. They show how different assets work in sync digitally.
• Process twins represent the environment of the entire system and provide insights into how each component and asset behaves in it.

So, if you plan to build a process twin for your manufacturing unit, it’s not just a simulation that needs software expertise. You also need to consider how individual mechanical parts will work together, what the moving parts are, and how they will affect their lifespan.

Building a digital twin tailored to your business needs may also increase costs. Therefore, it is essential to know the cost of creating a digital twin. Outsourcing is one solution that can reduce costs, which is why digital twins are also a significant outsourcing software development trend.

16. Serverless Computing

Serverless computing is a cloud-native development approach that helps developers build apps without the hassle of managing infrastructure. The Serverless architecture allows developers to offload the responsibilities of scaling and maintaining workloads.

This means you can simply write code and deploy without worrying about the underlying architecture. It uses client-side logic and third-party services to offer a comprehensive system. The advantage of decoupled services is apparent when you compare serverless with the traditional approach. Everything from the database, security, and backend logic is offloaded to a third-party service.

Key Benefits of Serverless Computing

• No need to provision infrastructure
• Reduced operation costs with pay per execution model
• On-demand and automatic scaling of resources
• Event-driven architecture for enhanced performance
• Rapid time to market with faster development cycles

17. Globalization of Software Development

Globalization requires adapting software development to an international audience. It has become one of the latest software development trends that can be leveraged to maximize visibility and improve conversions.

Software globalization includes using flexible web architecture and content management systems to support multiple languages. It also includes adapting the system to cultural nuances. For example, consider using a right-to-left content structure on the app for global audiences.

However, globalizing software development requires a strategic approach. For instance, comparing in-house vs. outsourcing approaches is crucial if you are trying to implement software globalization.

You will need the flexibility to adapt software to a global audience, so choosing in-house developers can lead to a high cost of training. However, choosing the right location becomes important for cost-effectiveness if you outsource development. Selecting the best countries to outsource software development helps reduce costs and improve flexibility and scalability.

How Excellent Webworld Can Help You Leverage These Trends?

Knowing the software development trends will allow you to adapt your offerings to changing market dynamics. These trends are also crucial to your development planning. Integrating these trends in your software development projects can offer a competitive edge to your business. However, implementation is where you will need expertise.

This is where Excellent Webworld can help. With more than 13 years of experience delivering custom software development excellence, we will build tailored solutions that integrate the latest trends. What makes us one of the most preferred software development companies is our unwavering support that goes beyond the deployment. Contact us if you want to get ahead of the curve by building custom software based on the latest trends.

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Article By

Mahil Jasani

Mahil Jasani began his career as a developer and progressed to become the COO of Excellent Webworld. He uses his technical experience to tackle any challenge that arises in any department, be it development, management, operations, or finance.