Legacy systems remain a major barrier to digital transformation, consuming a significant share of IT resources and slowing innovation. According to research from IDC, unmanaged technical debt can absorb 20% to 40% of IT development time. Thus, limiting organizations’ ability to deploy new data-driven and AI-enabled services. As a result, some enterprises are turning to AI itself as a tool to modernize aging systems rather than replacing them through traditional, costly rewrites.
One example comes from the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). The organization relies on decades-old AS/400 systems that were increasingly difficult to maintain. Jeff Love, PRCA’s CTO, said that early experiments with general-purpose AI tools struggled to process the scale and interconnected nature of the legacy codebase.
PRCA’s breakthrough came with the adoption of Zencoder, a specialist agentic AI platform designed to analyze business logic and translate legacy code into plain-language explanations. By refining how agents were instructed and embedding requirements, workflows, and acceptance criteria, PRCA used AI to document systems, generate modernization plans. Even create unit tests to reduce errors before deployment.
Love estimates the approach has cut development time by around 50%. This allows his small IT team to focus on digital services and new applications rather than ongoing maintenance. The AI-generated documentation also shortened onboarding time for new developers, reducing fear of changing complex systems and improving overall code quality.
Key takeaways for business leaders:
- Technical debt can consume up to 40% of IT development time, limiting innovation
- General-purpose AI tools may struggle with large, interconnected legacy systems
- Specialist AI agents can document, test, and translate decades of business logic
- AI-assisted modernization can significantly reduce development time and risk
PRCA aims to complete its AS/400 migration by the end of 2026 and then modernize additional platforms. The case highlights how AI, when applied strategically, can help organizations tackle legacy constraints. Also, highlighting restoring momentum to long-term digital transformation.
Source:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-modernize-legacy-systems-with-ai/
