AI Modernization

IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z is a commercial, generative-AI-assisted IBM product, announced on August 22, 2023, that works inside the developer's IDE on COBOL and PL/I applications running on IBM Z. IBM's product page describes COBOL-to-Java transformation paired with generated unit tests that compare the Java service with the original COBOL, and says the Java is meant to interoperate with IBM Z runtimes. PL/I support on that page covers analysis, explanation and refactoring, not Java transformation. IBM's version 2.6 announcement lists code explanation for COBOL, JCL, PL/I and REXX, an Assembler preview, and COBOL code generation.

Amazon Q Developer is AWS's in-IDE generative-AI coding assistant, whose Code Transformation agent upgrades Java applications from version 8 or 11 to 17 and ports .NET Framework applications to cross-platform .NET — and AWS is winding it down. New signups closed on 15 May 2026 and support ends on 30 April 2027, per AWS's own end-of-support announcement. The coding-assistant role passes to Kiro; the code-transformation capabilities move to the separately branded AWS Transform. Treat it as a product to migrate off rather than one to adopt: anything scoped on Q Developer today needs a named successor before the 2027 date.

GitHub Copilot is Microsoft's AI coding assistant, and its modernization agents extend it beyond completion into upgrade work: moving Java across versions 8, 11, 17, 21, and 25, porting .NET Framework and C++ projects to current runtimes, and migrating the result to Azure with generated containers and infrastructure-as-code. Every recommended change is left for a developer to review before it ships: the agents propose, they do not merge. It is a general-purpose developer tool rather than a modernization supplier, so it belongs alongside a delivery partner on a large program, not instead of one.