The pace of innovation in Europe has become one of the most closely debated themes so far this year.
In January, the European Commission released the Draghi report on EU competitiveness that placed tech innovation as core to the future economic growth and global relevance for the region.
The AI Continent Action Plan followed in April 2025 and detailed a significant shift in European strategy in efforts to embrace the benefits of AI across various sectors such as healthcare, industry and environmental sustainability by building large-scale AI data and computing infrastructures, increasing access to high-quality data, and fostering technology adoption in strategic sectors.
Most recently, reports emerged that the European Commission is planning to present key reforms to the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) so that companies “waste less time and money on complying with complex legal and regulatory requirements imposed by EU laws.”
Although regulatory frameworks have some influence on the pace of innovation, Europe needs to first address underlying issues associated with the fundamentals of software engineering.
Slow software release cycles and development speeds are affecting engineering teams the world over.
The ability to innovate is being put to the test by outdated software engineering processes that still prevail. Organizations recognize the need to launch new products and release features to remain competitive in today’s tech-dominant environment.
Yet even companies with significant resources are finding it challenging to move through the various stages of discovery, testing,and development to launch software solutions at the speed that users expect.
According to digital services transformation company Ness Digital Engineering (Ness), the compartmentalized way that software products have traditionally been built is no longer fit for purpose, and this represents the biggest barrier to innovation.
To tackle this, the company recently launched ATONIS, an AI-powered automated engineering workbench designed to revolutionize the entire Product Development Lifecycle (PDLC).
ATONIS, is the latest addition to Ness’s Intelligent Engineering portfolio. The workbench brings the power of AI to software engineering.
This is set to address the time-consuming and costly parts of the traditional software PDLC such as identifying market opportunities or testing the viability of ideas. In turn, engineers can move these solutions from build to launch at record speeds to cater to the emerging needs of users at record speeds.
McKinsey recently identified AI-enabled software development systems as a key lever for innovation. The launch of ATONIS makes this a reality for software engineering teams for the first time.
The automated engineering workbench for software development offers a new way to tackle every stage of the PDLC, from planning to deployment. This is achieved through intelligent automation, real-time insights, and smart copilots that recognize the need for comprehensive tools that eliminate fragmentation.
Using ATONIS, features can now be moved through prototyping, design and testing to be launched into the hands of users in a matter of days – something which can take weeks or months with traditional systems.
With over two decades of heritage in developing differentiated enterprise software, Ness saw the clear need to reshape the PDLC and support software engineering teams with intelligent tools that drive excellence and agile delivery in modern environments.
Ness CEO Dr. Ranjit Tinaikar explained during the announcement of the launch that the company is “pushing the boundaries of what is possible by embedding AI into the core of engineering execution” with solutions that “accelerates time-to-market, enhances product quality, and sparks innovation.”
ATONIS reduces the manual efforts required from software teams building products by up to 50% thanks to several closely mapped features.
When getting started, the workbench helps with the planning stage, auto-generates user stories and epics based on actual business requirements. The Architecture Analyzer can independently evaluate codebases and generate wireframes or blueprints to accelerate the early stages of the design process.
It also offers a Co-Pilot to automate testing and self-service setup of CI/CD pipelines for faster, reliable deployments, product pseudocode and production-ready code from user stories and convert legacy codebases into modern tech stacks, reducing tech debt.
As a result, ATONIS promises to drive a clear advantage by helping organizations in Europe bring products to market ahead of the competition and improve customer satisfaction.