The Future of HR Tech Is No-Code.
How I Built 4 Working Apps Without Knowing Code
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Happy Friday,
Special week this one! On Sunday, I’ll participate in Vasaloppet a 90k ski race from Sälen to Mora. And once that is (hopefully) done, I’ll change cloths and fly to Amsterdam to participate and speak at HR Tech.
I’ll be doing two sessions. On Tuesday, I’ll be in the hall with my laptop, ready to dive into today's article topic—building HR Tech using no-code tools.
On Wednesday, I’m giving a session on AI and… what now? I’ve spent many late nights on this one, packing in all the latest updates, real-time data points, and where they’re leading us. More importantly, I’ll cover how you, as an HR professional, can prepare. What can you do beyond the hype around agents, AI, machine learning, DeepSeek, and everything else?
Things are shifting daily—from happy-go-lucky, we’ll figure it out to so dark my computer needs antidepressants. So, who knows what that Wednesday session will bring? Show up and find out!
(I have two (!) tickets left if anyone wants to join last minute. Email me.)
But that’s for next week.
Let’s dive into today’s topic.
I'm not a coder.
At best and with a gun to my head, I could probably code a website. But it would be a website that we considered modern in 1998, because that is roughly the knowledge I have. (It would probably have a lot of flames and a big "under construction" sign at the bottom.)
I love to think, ponder, and theorise what I would build, if I could code. I don't know how many projects I've been thinking of in the past. Some of them I have realized through either helping friends, Wordpress or freelancers from Fiverr.
That is all in the past.
The last couple of months I've been playing around with no-code tools such as Replit and Lovable, paired with ChatGPT and Claude. It's more fun than I'd like to admit.
I've built the AI Org Check, which helps your organisation get ready and be compliant with the EU AI Act.
I've built the HR Events-dashboard on top of Hung Lee's great spreadsheet.
I've built landing pages for my webinars.
I've built my own simple ATS (!).
I do want to point out once again - I can not code.
But the tools can.
And yes, having worked in tech companies my entire career, I know bits and pieces and I do have some kind of schematic understanding on how to build apps.
But I still can't code.
Yet, watch this video of me, creating my own employee engagement tool in less than 10 minutes.
For me, this shows a window into the future. I think that this is where work in general is heading. Not today, not tomorrow but still - this is the path. Type/talk something - get valid results back.
Right now it's "limited" (I say "limited" because it's insane what these models can do) to creating code. But I'm very certain we will see similar tools in other domains. Are we ready for that? I'm not sure.
What This Means For You
The gap between "technical" and "non-technical" people is rapidly closing. Tools that once required specialized knowledge are now accessible to anyone with an idea and the willingness to learn these new interfaces.
Think about what you could build if coding wasn't a barrier. That HR system you've always wanted? The client portal your team needs? The internal tool that would save everyone hours each week? They're all within reach.
Getting Started
If you're curious about dipping your toes into this no-code + AI world, here are some entry points:
For simple web apps: Try Replit
The learning curve is gentler than you might expect, especially with AI assistants to guide you through the process.
What Would You Build?
I'm curious - what would you create if coding skills weren't a barrier? Reply to this email or drop me and let me know what you've been dreaming of building!
We might try it out in Amsterdam!