Fabian Veit, CEO of Make – Interview Series

Fabian Q. Veit is the CEO of Make, where he has overseen the company’s global expansion and product evolution since April 2022. Before joining Make, he held senior leadership roles at Celonis, a market leader in process mining, where he helped scale the company into a major enterprise SaaS provider. Veit is widely recognized for driving innovation through the integration of AI and automation, and he remains active in the startup ecosystem as an advisor, investor, and board member at Treetop Medical.

Make, the company he leads, is a powerful no-code automation platform that allows users to visually build workflows by connecting over 2,000 apps and services. With its intuitive drag-and-drop interface and advanced features like Make Grid and AI-powered logic, it enables teams to design and deploy automations at any level of complexity—without writing code. Trusted by organizations of all sizes, Make empowers businesses to streamline operations, scale processes, and innovate faster.

You’ve led high-growth journeys at both Celonis and now Make. Looking back, what originally drew you to the no-code movement—and what convinced you this was the next major shift in how technology gets built?

When I was at Celonis, I was deeply inspired by the product and the processes we used to transform process mining into a real business game-changer. It showed me that technology could fundamentally change how companies operate and make decisions.

When I joined Make, I could feel that same spark – the potential of a visual approach to no-code automation to revolutionize the way people work. Tasks like “copy data from interface A to interface B” or “drag this file here, move that card there,” are essential to keeping operations running smoothly. But having highly skilled teams spend time on these repetitive, tedious tasks isn’t the best use of their intellect or energy.

Automation (and in particular no-code automation) changes that by freeing teams from repetitive work while ensuring these tasks still get done efficiently. It empowers domain experts – often people without traditional coding backgrounds – to create solutions themselves. This technology is reshaping job markets and shifting business priorities, enabling people to be more creative in how they run their operations.

What excites me most is how no-code accelerates industry development and creates more streamlined, efficient processes. It’s more than just a tool, it represents the future of technology creation and business innovation. That’s why I’m convinced this is the next major shift in how technology gets built.

We’re seeing a shift where AI-powered no-code platforms are democratizing software creation. What excites you most about this intersection of automation and accessibility?

The true democratization of software creation is what excites me the most about the automation industry. By combining automation with accessibility, these platforms soon will empower anyone, regardless of their technical background, to build solutions quickly and intuitively.

AI adds a whole new dimension to no-code by simplifying complex tasks like data processing and workflow optimization. This means users don’t just automate repetitive work, they can leverage human language to build intelligent automation, something that was impossible until now.

This democratization accelerates innovation. Businesses now can respond faster to changing market needs without relying heavily on specialized developers. It shifts the focus from just “building software” to unlocking creativity and solving real problems at every level of an organization.

How do you see the role of no-code evolving in the age of AI agents and real-time adaptive workflows? Will coding ever become optional for enterprise tech?

Our philosophy is about being ‘visual’ even more than being ‘no-code’. No-code is only a means to an end. And if people prefer human language over code, this is also no-code. But what we fundamentally believe in is that you want to be able to see, flex and scale your automated workflows. This is what Make is excellent at.

The focus is no longer on, ‘Do you have the technical skills?’, but instead on whether you understand the business problems you need to fix, and your will to learn. You always used to need at least two people to solve something, one who understood the business problem, the other with the technical expertise. Now you can unify them. It’s not just transformational for businesses, it’s transformational for employees, who find it easier to stay relevant and ensure they have the right skills. This shift is redefining the skill sets required for the future workforce. So much so, that many organizations now even have job roles for specific no-code capabilities. We are seeing enterprises and even mid-sized companies appoint no-code operators and no-code officers.

Make supports everyone from solo founders to major enterprises. Which user group is currently driving the most innovation on your platform—and how are they using AI differently?

Make has always been a platform that empowers “innovators” – the technically minded, outcome-obsessed builders you will find in businesses of every size. Now, in the AI era, we are seeing more people adopt that mindset as they discover the power of AI and automation. Smaller teams are always typically the first to experiment, setting up AI-powered flows for lead scoring, content generation, and more. But what’s really exciting is that large enterprises are quickly jumping in to deploy AI at scale.

For example, Stellantis &You UK is using Make to power a two-way messaging automation that analyzes customer sentiment in real time. They have already automatically closed more than 18,000 conversations, saving 151 hours of manual work and boosting customer satisfaction. That’s not just clever automation. It’s AI delivering real operational gains at scale.

You’ve mentioned the rise of “innovators.” What are the most compelling use cases you’ve seen built by non-technical users using Make and AI integrations?

Make provides a visual, intuitive interface that allows users without coding skills to create, build, and automate complex workflows. This accessibility empowers employees across various departments to take control of digital transformation initiatives. No longer do they need to rely on IT to get small things done. Make lets users just get started.

Make now powers over 350,000 organizations. What industries or departments are you seeing adopt AI-powered workflows the fastest – and why?

In recent years, tech leaders have been looking for ways to scale quickly, efficiently, and with minimal overhead. Hence, we see the adoption of AI-powered workflow across all industries and departments from Marketing and Sales use cases, all the way to HR,  Finance and Operations.

For these teams, success is measured by agility: how fast they can respond to change, adapt workflows, and automate business processes to remove bottlenecks.

As use of LLMs exploded over the past few years, there were huge early gains in business functions that rely on generating content, from personalized copy in Marketing to email replies in Customer Support.

But as these models have matured, we now see far more sophisticated applications. Organizations of all sizes are delegating not just content creation, but decision-makingmaking powers to AI agents – and empowering them to take action. This means we’re seeing the rulebook rewritten before our very eyes in functions that require decisions to be made and subsequent processes to be followed. Some of the examples we see that facilitate cross-departmental work are particularly exciting.

Make AI Agents are a relatively new concept. Can you walk us through how they function differently from traditional automation and what makes them “agentic”?

One of the biggest challenges in automation today is that traditional workflows can be rigid because they rely on fixed rules and can’t adapt in real time to changing needs or unpredictable inputs. As organizations strive for greater agility, there’s a growing demand for systems that can make intelligent decisions on the fly, scale across complex environments, and integrate seamlessly with the tools people already use.

That’s exactly what we’re solving with Make AI Agents – bringing intelligent, goal-driven decision-making into our users’ automation workflows.

Agentic automation is smarter, more adaptive, and requires less maintenance. With Make AI agents, customers no longer need to anticipate every condition in advance, agents can respond in real time, choose the right tools, and take the right actions based on context.

What sets Make AI Agents apart is how customizable and scalable they are. You can define a global system prompt for consistency, tailor behaviours to specific workflows, and choose the LLM that best fits your use case. Unlike siloed AI tools, our agents can be reused across workflows, offering centralized management and better visibility. And because you define the agent’s prompts and select which tools it can use, you’re still in control – without having to make every decision or take every action yourself.

In a crowded automation landscape, what technical or strategic edge does Make offer that others simply don’t?

Make stands out by offering an exceptionally flexible and visual platform that empowers users to build complex, end-to-end workflows with ease. Unlike tools that rely on rigid templates or require coding expertise, Make provides a drag-and-drop interface that’s both intuitive and highly customizable, enabling true creativity and problem-solving tailored to unique business needs.

Technically, Make’s extensive ecosystem of integrations and its ability to handle complex conditional logic, error handling, and data manipulation set it apart. This means businesses can automate processes that span multiple systems and adapt quickly as those processes evolve.

Strategically, Make focuses on enabling innovators and domain experts, empowering teams to innovate from the ground up. We’re not just providing automation. At Make, we’re fostering a culture of agility where users can experiment, iterate, and optimize workflows in real time. This flexibility accelerates digital transformation and helps organizations stay competitive in fast-changing markets.

You’ve scaled software companies during some of the fastest tech adoption cycles in history. What will separate the winners from the rest in the next wave of AI + automation?

One of the biggest blockers, especially within larger organizations, is internal policy. We often see corporate mandates that restrict or outright prevent the use of AI. While concerns around safe and responsible adoption are valid, in many cases these fears are overblown and risk stifling innovation.

The winners in this next wave will take a different approach. They will embrace AI across their organization both for personal productivity and core business processes, moving quickly but deliberately. They’ll adapt internal structures to stay aligned with the pace of AI and automation progress. But they won’t implement tech just to chase hype. Instead, they’ll be pragmatic, choosing AI and automation where it makes sense, and ensuring every step of implementation serves a clear business purpose. Not every problem needs an AI agent. Often this is overkill. Success won’t come from simply keeping up with the trend; it will come from making smart, strategic choices at every stage.

Finally, what’s your boldest prediction about where the no-code automation industry will be by 2030 – and what role do you hope Make will play in it?

It has never been easier to get AI directly into your day-to-day processes and business workflows. Whether you connect to cloud systems or even just use AI-powered Web Actors, this will transform how work gets done in an organization, and how people need to operate. No-code makes this transformation broadly accessible and allows a much higher number of people to deploy AI into their day-to-day workflows. In the next wave, we will see the possibility for domain experts to not only build their own websites and portals but also become empowered to build strong agents that can use all sorts of tools (from CRM access, to financial systems actions, to customer interaction and even data enrichment, etc.). So in real terms, it means we could soon see billion-dollar businesses with only 10-20 employees.

Thank you for the great interview, readers who wish to learn more should visit Make.