To be released by the end of June, Pega Infinity 8.6 includes enhancements to Pega Platform, Pega Customer Service, and Pega Customer Decision Hub.

New low-code capabilities in Pega Platform help professional and citizen developers to design modern user interfaces for their apps.

The combination of Pega's app authoring capabilities with out-of-the-box UX best practices are said to deliver the most complete low-code app design and development solution. The result, according to the company, is extremely fast and efficient interfaces that look great, are a pleasure to use, and deliver the business outcomes enterprises need to succeed.

More specifically, the new React-based version of the Pega Cosmos Design System yields applications that can perform up to three times faster, thanks in part to the 'single-page application' approach which reduces the payload by 75%.

New design templates also help enterprises create more efficient app interfaces, which are said to help reduce end-user errors, mouse movements, and fatigue while improving task completion rates.

App Studio's reusable design templates are based on proven best practices, allowing users to focus on their models and apps while the UI is rendered in parallel with their work. Furthermore, branding elements can be automatically set across an entire app.

Context-aware APIs automatically adjust user interfaces when the connected back-end code is changed. An example given by Pegasystems is that if a bank uses Pega to update an existing loan application process with a new data field, Pega DX API helps dynamically render the new field across all connected channels, such as the web or mobile interface, significantly reducing development time.

"These new features in Pega Platform represent a significant step change in the evolution of low-code app development," said Pegasystems chief product officer Kerim Akgonul.

"For the first time, organisations can use low code to not only build bullet-proof process automation apps but to also easily complement their own developed apps with elegant user interfaces – all done in the same tool. This helps allow enterprises to spend less time building and more time driving key business outcomes that matter."

Pega Process AI combines the platform's AI-based decisioning capabilities and low-code process automation software to help optimise business and customer operations in real time.

According to the company, this is the only solution that can self-optimise and intelligently triage millions of incoming customer requests, transactions, and other events at enterprise scale.

Pega Process Fabric becomes available to all users in Pega Infinity 8.6, allowing employees to manage their work in a single location that consolidates tasks from multiple apps, whether Pega or non-Pega, with AI to help ensure the most important work gets top priority.

Pega Customer Service Digital Customer Engagement Edition gains advanced messaging capabilities, including a messaging widget that can be embedded in a website to allow customers to initiate conversations via their preferred channel (eg, web chat, SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, or Apple Business Chat) and subsequently switch channels without disrupting the conversation.

Pega Customer Service also gains new 'microjourneys' – preconfigured customer service cases – for the financial services, insurance, and communications industries. There are now more than 180 microjourneys available for Pega Customer Service.

Functions such as intelligent virtual assistants, search, and customer verification are now more easily configured and managed thanks to the low-code capabilities in Pega's App Studio.

Pega Customer Decision Hub gains new capabilities including improvements to the Next-Best-Action Designer; additional machine learning pperations (MLOps) capabilities for automated deployment, updates, and replacement of models used in next-best-action decisioning; and the ability to compare the performance of the current model to the candidate model using real production data prior to deployment.

"Even after their incredible adaptations in the pandemic, businesses have accelerated into an even more advanced stage of digital transformation," said Pegasystems founder and CEO Alan Trefler.

"Now is not the time to rest – they must find even more ways to improve efficiencies, meet evolving customer needs, and leverage data for insights. Pega Infinity can help equip them with the tools they need to meet these challenges by becoming faster, smarter, and more effective than the competition."