Here Come The AI-Based Code Modernization Offerings

April 6, 2026 Alex Woodie

IBM i shops that are stuck with old code but don’t have the manpower to modernize it themselves are now considering the use of AI to handle much work. This new era of AI-assisted application modernization that we are now entering has the potential to be a boon for understaffed IBM i shops, but it raises new questions and concerns that IBM i professionals should keep in mind.

The capability of AI to understand, document, and generate computer code has increased significantly over the past year. Thanks to fundamental improvements in large language models (LLMs), we’re now at the point where organizations can begin to trust AI for at least some of their software development work. According to a recent Kyndryl study, interest in using new LLM technologies with IBM i and System z applications is “exploding.”

The IBM i community has a variety of options when it comes to AI coding agents. One option is for customers to get their AI straight from the AI model builders themselves, including Anthropic’s Claude, Google Cloud’s Gemini, OpenAI’s GPT, or Meta Platforms’ Llama. Each of these models has demonstrated some skill with RPG running on IBM i, with Claude arguably being the best at this point.

Another option is to use a power tool from one of the development tool vendors in the IBM i community. IBM’s new Bob falls into this category. Bob uses AI from Anthropic, Meta, and Mistral, as well as IBM’s own Granite model, so it’s technically a hybrid of the first category and the power tool category. Bob has the advantage of being the IBM-branded offering, which helps considerably with marketing and brand awareness, as well as attracting its stable of IBM i ISVs, such as healthcare app provider Medhost.

There are other AI power tools to keep an eye on, including Profound Logic’s CoderFlow, which uses Claude and GPT on the backend and employs a multi-agent framework to assess with a variety of developer tasks, from code conversion and compilation to testing code and resolving errors. “What we’re seeing with this new approach is it’s truly agentic and it’s like five to 10 times the productivity,” Profound chief executive officer Alex Roytman told IT Jungle earlier this year.

Fresche Solutions is using AI in a slightly different way. Instead of pasting RPG code into an AI prompt and asking the AI to convert it to Java, Fresche first extracts the business rules from legacy RPG or Synon, and then leverages AI to generate the new code. “We have put in a lot of work how to constrain the hallucinations,” said Marcel Sarrasin, general manager of modernization solutions at Fresche.

ARCAD Software has a range of tools that work with AI, enclouding Discover for source code analysis and cross-referencing analysis; DROPS for multi-platform deployment; and its traditional ARCAD-branded DevSecOps. This spring it’s launching an MCP Server for hooking IBM i resources to AI tools and offering a plug-in for the newly released IBM Bob. ARCAD chief executive officer Philippe Magne advocates a pragmatic approach to AI. “AI does not replace everything,” he wrote in an IT Jungle sponsored post in February. “It is a powerful assistant, but it cannot fully substitute human expertise and understanding.

Polverini & Partners has launched AI Production Gate, which it says is the deterministic control layer for scaling autonomous AI code generation on IBM i. The company is also preparing a plug-in that will allow its ReplicTest end-to-end testing suite to work with IBM Bob.

Remain Software launched the IBM i community’s very first coding assistant. Ai Chat, which Remain launched back in May 2023, plugs into Eclipse-compatible IDEs, such as RDi and its own MiWorkplace, and leverages ChatGPT to analyze IBM i code.

There’s a third category of offerings for AI-powered code conversion: legacy modernization services. ARCAD, Fresche, and Profound are happy to sell you services to go along with their tools, but it’s not required. Last week, we saw a new AI-powered modernization offering that has services as an intrinsic component.

Last week, Programmers.io launched TimeBridge, which it calls a “comprehensive modernization framework” for IBM i applications.

As part of TimeBridge, the Dallas, Texas-based company is bundling three things, including: AI-powered tools for code documentation and generation; advisory services that include modernization assessments, roadmaps, and blueprints targeting manufacturing, retail, and logistics; and technical services from its team of real human IBM i experts.

Programmers.io says it’s including advisory services due to the high failure rate of large-scale modernization projects. Reducing risk, controlling cost, and preserving business continuity are some of its goals with its TimeBridge offering.

“Industries like manufacturing, retail, and transportation rely on IBM i for their most mission-critical operations but they’re under increasing pressure to modernize,” Programmers.io President Anshul Choudhry stated. “We’re incredibly excited to introduce TimeBridge to an industry that’s been searching for an experienced partner with a disciplined, end-to-end approach to modernization. TimeBridge brings structure where projects often fail, and it does so by leveraging AI in a safe, ethical, and enterprise-ready way.”

Undoubtedly there are more AI coding tools and services for IBM i that we have missed. If so, you can tell us about them here.

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