IBM's GenAI: Revolutionizing COBOL Code Refactoring and Translation to Java

IBM is developing the watsonx Code Assistant, an AI tool aimed at refactoring ancient COBOL code for its mainframe systems. The tool will analyze, refactor, and test the code, with humans still involved in the process. IBM hopes that the generative AI will help decouple individual services from monolithic COBOL apps, making the code more modular. The company plans to offer the tool in three steps: refactoring, transforming the code into mainframe-friendly Java or COBOL, and validation with AI-generated test cases. While AI assistance could help modernize COBOL code, concerns remain about the loss of institutional memory and the potential for AI-generated code to introduce errors.