# IDA: Breaking Barriers in No-code UI Automation Through Large Language Models and Human-Centric Design

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.15673 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.15673/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 22 Jul 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [ST-WebAgentBench: A Benchmark for Evaluating Safety and Trustworthiness in Web Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.06703/) (2024)
- [Routine: A Structural Planning Framework for LLM Agent System in Enterprise](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.14447/) (2025)
- [Human-AI Experience in Integrated Development Environments: A Systematic Literature Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06195/) (2025)
- [From Benchmarks to Business Impact: Deploying IBM Generalist Agent in Enterprise Production](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.23856/) (2025)
- [Lazy or Efficient? Towards Accessible Eye-Tracking Event Detection Using LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.13243/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Business users dedicate significant amounts of time to repetitive tasks within enterprise digital platforms, highlighting a critical need for automation. Despite advancements in low-code tools for UI automation, their complexity remains a significant barrier to adoption among non-technical business users. However, recent advancements in large language models (LLMs) have created new opportunities to overcome this barrier by offering more powerful, yet simpler and more human-centric programming environments. This paper presents IDA (Intelligent Digital Apprentice), a novel no-code Web UI automation tool designed specifically to empower business users with no technical background. IDA incorporates human-centric design principles, including guided programming by demonstration, semantic programming model, and teacher-student learning metaphor which is tailored to the skill set of business users. By leveraging LLMs, IDA overcomes some of the key technical barriers that have traditionally limited the possibility of no-code solutions. We have developed a prototype of IDA and conducted a user study involving real world business users and enterprise applications. The promising results indicate that users could effectively utilize IDA to create automation. The qualitative feedback indicates that IDA is perceived as user-friendly and trustworthy. This study contributes to unlocking the potential of AI assistants to enhance the productivity of business users through no-code user interface automation.