From Newsgroup: comp.lang.cobol
'Modernizing a COBOL system once required armies of consultants
spending years
mapping workflows... AI changes this': Anthropic says AI could help
keep COBOL
running for a long time to come - but IBM won't be happy
By Efosa Udinmwen published 19 hours ago
Engineers can now modernize complex COBOL systems using AI
AI automates COBOL code exploration, maps dependencies, and
analyzes
structural risks quickly
Engineers can prioritize modernization based on technical risk and
business
value efficiently
Automated tests verify that migrated COBOL components produce
identical
outputs to legacy systems
Modernizing legacy COBOL systems has long been a costly and
labor-intensive
process that requires extensive human effort, as traditionally, teams
of
consultants spent months or even years mapping workflows, documenting dependencies, and untangling decades of accumulated business logic.
Hundreds of billions of lines of COBOL still run in production
worldwide,
powering critical systems in banking, government, and airlines, yet
finding
developers with the knowledge to interpret these systems has become increasingly difficult.
Now, however, Anthropic is looking to supplant this, with its Claude AI platform aiming to take much of the heavy lifting away from human
workloads.
How AI aids code exploration and analysis
This scarcity of expertise has historically slowed modernization
projects and
increased costs - however, Anthropic now believes AI can automate much
of the
exploration phase that once consumed most human effort.
"Modernizing a COBOL system once required armies of consultants
spending
years mapping workflows... AI changes this," the company said in a blog
post.
Tools like Claude Code can map dependencies across thousands of lines
of COBOL,
trace data flows between modules, and document workflows that current
staff no
longer actively remember. These automated processes identify risks,
isolate
tightly coupled components, and flag duplicated or potentially fragile
code.
By analyzing these structural and functional relationships, AI can
prioritize
which components to modernize first based on technical risk, business
value,
and organizational priorities.
The best laptops for programming allow engineers to integrate AI
outputs
efficiently while maintaining oversight of the modernization plan, and
once
components are prioritized, AI can generate preliminary function tests
to
verify that migrated code produces identical outputs to the legacy
system.
Human teams then decide whether these automated tests are sufficient,
which
scenarios require manual verification, and what performance benchmarks
must be
maintained. Implementation proceeds incrementally, with each module
tested and
validated before additional changes are made.
AI tools can translate COBOL logic into modern languages, create API
wrappers
around legacy components, and build scaffolding that allows old and new
code to
operate side by side. This reduces the risk of large-scale failures
and
enables organizations to move forward with complex modernization
projects.
AI also provides detailed insights into potential technical debt,
isolated
modules, and high-risk areas, allowing teams to plan modernization strategically - as engineers can review these recommendations and
sequence the
work to align with regulatory requirements, business priorities, and operational constraints.
Automated documentation and analysis give teams comprehensive
situational
awareness, but final decisions still rely on human judgment.
While this is a major win for many engineering teams, IBM, a major
vendor of
COBOL-powered mainframes and enterprise systems, will not be pleased.
The company saw its stock fall sharply after Anthropic announced that
Claude
Code could automate much of the labor-intensive modernization process.
AI's ability to replace work traditionally done by human consultants
threatens parts of IBM's business model.
This shows that even long-established enterprise software vendors may
face
disruption as AI continues to reshape legacy system modernization.
https://www.techradar.com/pro/modernizing-a-cobol-system-once-required- -armies-o
f-consultants-spending-years-mapping-workflows-ai-changes-this- -anthropic-says-a i-could-help-keep-cobol-running-for-a-long-time-to-come-but-ibm-wont-be-
-happy
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