IBM brings Agentic AI to COBOL and mainframe development
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The IBM Z software team has brought Agentic AI into mainframe development, giving COBOL applications the same agentic IDE experience as Java and Node through Bob and the Premium Package for Z. The solution supports SaaS, hybrid, and air-gapped on-premises deployments, and includes the deterministic, auto-fixable security check Z code scan and a data dictionary. IBM says the data dictionary can capture expert knowledge and cut onboarding time from years to months.
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- Hacker News AIBringing Agentic AI to COBOL and the Mainframe with Rich Larin
Recorded at IBM TechXchange 2026, RedMonk's Kate Holterhoff speaks with Rich Larin, IBM's Director of Z DevX & Platform Engineering, about bringing agentic AI tools to mainframe developers. Larin describes how Bob and the Premium Package for Z let COBOL teams use the same agentic IDE as other developers, with deployment options including SaaS, hybrid and air-gapped on-prem, plus Z code scan for deterministic security checks that Bob can remediate automatically and a data dictionary that captures experts' knowledge. He advises trying a proof of concept and hints at upcoming releases combining AI with analysis of very large applications.
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