At Appian World 2025, I had the pleasure of speaking with Appian’s Chief Product Architect Matt Hilliard about AI and the future of enterprise software. In our insightful conversation, Matt shared how Appian balances innovation with reliability and why making powerful tools easier to use remains central to everything Appian builds. Here is our full conversation exclusively on Pulse 2.0.
Matt Hilliard
Shan (Pulse 2.0): Hello Matt. Thanks for meeting with me. Can you share a bit about your background?
Matt (Appian): Good to meet you, Shan. I’ve been at Appian for over twenty years. I focus on making hard things simpler. That applies to both how Appian builds software and how our customers use it. I studied computer science and started out doing consulting work at Appian. Back then, it meant writing a lot of code. After nine years of consulting work, I moved into product management at Appian. At Appian, I often think about how to make things simpler to use and understand. For instance, I was at a bar recently, talking to a musician about how hard it is to learn an instrument. I asked him, ‘Why is a piano still laid out this way?’ Can’t we build something better? That mindset shows up in my work, too, at Appian. Always asking if we can make things simpler for our customers.
Shan (Pulse 2.0): That’s awesome. When you build new features at Appian, how do you make sure that the product stays future-ready without creating too much technical debt?
Matt (Appian): That’s something we care a lot about at Appian. Customers use Appian for serious stuff. Their processes can’t break. We’ve even developed methods to extend our platform without disrupting existing apps like with our expression system. It works kind of like Excel formulas. If we make a new version of a function, we don’t break the old one. We just present the improved version in a way that fits with the rest of the platform. That way, existing features keep working like before, and new ones get better.
Shan (Pulse 2.0): How do you pick which new technologies to explore at Appian?
Matt (Appian): We start with problems. Our customers are in every industry you can think of. We track what they struggle with and what they ask for. When new tech comes along, we ask if it can help solve any of those problems. When generative AI showed up, we saw right away that it could help our customers. It allows for a more natural way for people to work with software.
Shan (Pulse 2.0): Is that what led to building Appian Composer?
Matt (Appian): Exactly. We did not want something that just spits out code from one sentence. That’s not how real enterprise systems work. There’s too much going on. Composer works like a conversation. You say what you want, it suggests something, and then you change it if you need to. You’re not locked in. You don’t have to fight it. You can just fix it yourself. It’s faster and less frustrating.
Shan (Pulse 2.0): Where do you see enterprise AI heading in the next few years?
Matt (Appian): I think we’re still in the early stages. Asking AI for answers is helpful, but it’s not a game changer. Where it gets interesting is when you use AI to automate real business tasks. Claims processing, data entry, tasks like that. AI can also help developers work faster. It won’t replace them, but it can help. The value is in combining what people know with what AI can do.
Shan (Pulse 2.0): What makes Appian different from other low-code or no-code tools?
Matt (Appian): Most platforms start simple and try to grow complex. We started complex and worked backward to make our platform easier to use. Even though it’s easy to use, our platform never gave up its power. That’s why Appian can handle both small use cases and really big ones. Some tools limit what you can build just to keep things simple. Appian lets you do much more.
Shan (Pulse 2.0): Do your teams use Appian to build internal tools?
Matt (Appian): Yes. Every new product manager at Appian builds internal tools during onboarding. It’s part of how they learn. And it helps us improve the product. We call it dogfooding. Some of our best ideas come from someone saying this is harder than it should be. We track all our product work in Appian itself, including feedback, features, and use cases.
Shan (Pulse 2.0): How do you decide what feedback to act on, internal or customer?
Matt (Appian): Customers come first. But internal feedback helps early in the process. We also remind ourselves that our setup is simpler than most of our customer setups. They use established systems and have more tools in the mix. That makes their needs more complicated. So we listen closely and adjust based on what they tell us.
Shan (Pulse 2.0): How do you move fast while keeping the Appian platform reliable?
Matt (Appian): Reliability is a must. We run mission-critical systems. So we invest in automated testing and performance checks. At the same time, we try new ideas fast and we prototype. At times, we use our own platform to do that. If something works and has value, we invest more and build it out.
Shan (Pulse 2.0): Do you think AI will open new markets for Appian?
Matt (Appian): We are already in most industries. What’s changing is who can use the product. AI lets people who aren’t developers get involved. That’s exciting. A finance manager or business analyst can now help shape the software they use. That’s the real shift.
Shan (Pulse 2.0): Thanks, Matt. It was great chatting with you.
