Platform engineering trends: Why enterprise CIOs are rebuilding developer experience

Platform engineering is no longer about racks of infrastructure. It’s the entire operating model that lets enterprises scale products and create a world-class developer experience (DevEx). Google’s latest report shows that 55% of surveyed organizations have adopted platform engineering, while 92% of CIOs are planning AI implementation in 2025. 

Therefore, we consulted our development experts to see how platform engineering is changing and what the latest industry trends are. Read on for a comprehensive review.

What is platform engineering, and why is it getting more popular?

Platform engineering is the practice of building internal developer platforms that combine self-service infrastructure, golden‐path templates, and paved workflows. The goal is to ensure product teams ship value instead of useless code. According to Gartner, platform engineering trends are emerging due to:

• Complexity overload: Micro-services, multi-cloud, and compliance multiply cognitive load.
• Talent pressure: The job market rewards companies offering smooth DevEx.
• Analyst momentum: 80% of large organizations will run platform teams by 2026.

However, those are only the tip of the iceberg, as there are also multiple enterprise platform engineering trends influencing this direction.

Key platform engineering trends CIOs should watch

Let’s take a closer look at the top platform engineering trends to expect in 2025–2026.

Shift from DevOps to “Platform-as-a-Product”

In traditional DevOps, teams focused on enabling developers to handle operations in the form of “you build it, you run it.” Now, CIOs are adopting a platform-as-a-product mindset to reduce tool sprawl, increase consistency, and improve developer outcomes. Platform teams now deliver reusable systems suited to internal needs. The key principles include:

• Internal platforms are treated as real products.
• Developers are the customers.
• Platform teams offer curated workflows and clear roadmaps.
• Feedback loops drive iteration and adoption.

This shift helps developers move faster with fewer distractions. Instead of ad hoc tooling per team, the platform delivers standardized solutions that scale. The result: reduced friction, happier developers, and significantly shorter time-to-market.

Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs) become the default

Internal Developer Platforms are becoming essential infrastructure in modern enterprises and are some of the latest platform engineering trends. No longer a luxury, IDPs now serve as the standard interface for cloud-native software delivery. Key benefits of IDPs include:

• Centralized tools, environments, and automation.
• Pre-approved workflows for deployment.
• Built-in governance and compliance.
• High developer dependency and satisfaction.

Gartner forecasts that 80% of enterprises will adopt platform engineering by 2026. A well-built IDP eliminates the need for custom pipelines per team, reduces operational overhead, and ensures consistent delivery practices across the organization.

Golden paths for service creation & deployment

Golden paths are predefined workflows that include best practices for creating and deploying services. They help teams move faster by reducing guesswork and embedding operational standards into templates. It’s one of the platform engineering innovations that’s already impacting modern development.

Golden path features include:

• One-click service creation with compliance baked in.
• Templates for security, observability, and CI/CD;
• “Blessed” workflows vetted by platform engineers;
• Faster onboarding for new developers.

Golden paths strike a balance between speed and control. Instead of building everything from scratch, developers get guided workflows that enforce consistency. CIOs benefit from fewer production issues, improved DevEx, and greater engineering efficiency.

CIOs prioritize developer experience over tool count

More tools don’t mean more productivity. CIOs are shifting focus from tool volume to developer efficiency. Among the new trends in platform engineering in 2025, the metric is flow, not headcount & tools.

The typical signs of DevEx maturity are:

• Unified platforms instead of fragmented tools.
• Time-to-onboard, deployment frequency, etc.
• Fewer context switches and reduced cognitive load.
• DevEx-focused roles: platform PMs, DevEx leads.

According to surveys, 75% of developers lose over 6 hours weekly due to tool fragmentation. CIOs who invest in seamless workflows instead of just tooling gain faster time-to-market and retain top talent.

AI-augmented platform operations

AI is becoming a critical component everywhere, so it’s unsurprising that it is also among the key trends in platform engineering. It’s great for infrastructure provisioning, anomaly detection, and many other processes that can be fully automated and accelerated. The key AI capabilities in platform ops include:

• Intent-to-infrastructure translation.
• Predictive alerts and auto-remediation.
• AI-powered support agents for internal teams.
• Resource optimization and capacity planning.

94% of surveyed enterprises see AI as essential to platform success. CIOs can make large-scale decisions that are more resilient, faster, and smarter by adding AI to pipelines and management layers.

Policy-as-Code & automated compliance

Policy-as-Code (PaC) enforces security and compliance through code. It’s a key element of governance in modern platform engineering, especially for regulated industries. Implementing PaC in your workflow provides:

• Instant feedback on policy violations.
• Enforced rules for cost, access, and tagging.
• Secure self-service within golden paths.
• Version-controlled, auditable policy logic.

Manual compliance slows delivery. With PaC, policies become automated barriers embedded in the pipeline. CIOs can prove compliance with confidence and scale governance without blocking innovation.

Low-code self-service portals

As developer portals become must-haves, CIOs are turning to low-code platforms for faster and more maintainable rollouts. Building from scratch just takes too long. Low-code portals are perfect due to:

• Faster setup (weeks, not months).
• Drag-and-drop UIs and declarative configs.
• Out-of-the-box service catalogs and workflows.
• Reduced need for React/JS developers.

Custom backstage deployments require years of ongoing engineering. Low-code options like Port and OpsLevel deliver 80% of functionality with a fraction of the effort. For CIOs, that means faster value realization and less platform debt.

Benefits of platform engineering for the enterprise

Now that we’ve covered the key predictions for platform engineering in 2025, let’s take a closer look at the benefits it provides. This data is based on the industry’s average statistics and our engineers’ personal experience across various projects.

Platform engineering success cases

If you’re wondering whether platform engineering is the best solution for your project, check out how N-iX’s development teams helped other companies get powerful benefits.

1. Comprehensive data analytics platform for an e‑commerce leader

N‑iX helped a fintech-backed e‑commerce provider migrate and modernize its analytics ecosystem. Following a detailed discovery phase, the team built an AWS-based data lake with bronze, silver, and gold layers and integrated CDC pipelines. They deployed Apache Spark and Snowflake to serve insights to Power BI dashboards. As a result, our team:

• Built a reusable analytics platform for both internal and external use.
• Improved data governance with secure AWS and Snowflake policies.
• Expanded reporting capabilities, enabling smarter business decisions.

This platform-engineered solution became part of the client’s product offering, helping attract new customers while delivering deeper insights to existing ones.

2. Digital experience platform for a major telecom operator

For a top ICT provider in Saudi Arabia, N‑iX created a unified Digital Experience Platform (DXP) to unify internal and customer interactions. After a four-week product discovery period, we established the architecture, workflows, and integrations with Camunda BPM, Oracle Fusion, and Microsoft 365. We also built employee and customer portals, improved UX/UI, and added dynamic forms. Benefits included:

• Boosted employee productivity via unified interfaces.
• Enhanced customer engagement and retention.
• Improved operations through integrated third-party systems.

This project highlights how platformed portals unify siloed systems, improving both productivity and user satisfaction.

Consider N-iX as your trusted partner for platform engineering

N-iX is a professional software development company with 22+ years in platform engineering and 2,400+ experts with a rich background in various niches. Our expertise can help you bring any project idea to life regardless of its complexity. If you're unsure that we can deliver tangible results, you can learn more about our success stories here. Contact us today to get a free consultation and discuss your project.

Final thoughts

Platform engineering is significantly impacting enterprise software delivery by improving developer experience, accelerating time-to-market, and enhancing operations. Modern trends include using AI-driven operations, golden paths, policy-as-code, and many others. 

If you’re planning on implementing the best practices in platform engineering within your project, partnering with N-iX will help you get all the expertise you need.