'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 (www.techradar.com)

Anthropic has unveiled its Claude AI platform, designed to revolutionize the modernization of COBOL systems, which are crucial in sectors like banking and government but notoriously challenging to update. Traditionally, modernizing these legacy systems involved extensive human labor to map workflows and untangle complex code, often requiring teams of consultants for years. Claude AI automates key processes such as code exploration, dependency mapping, and structural risk analysis, significantly reducing the time and cost associated with modernization projects. It helps engineers prioritize updates based on technical risk and business value, allowing them to implement changes incrementally while maintaining oversight through automated testing. This development is significant for the AI/ML community as it indicates a shift toward using AI to tackle long-standing challenges in legacy systems, enhancing efficiency and reducing reliance on scarce COBOL expertise. Anthropic’s automated tools can create APIs for legacy components and facilitate the integration of old and new code, thereby minimizing large-scale failures. However, this advancement poses a threat to major COBOL vendors like IBM, whose stock has already been impacted, suggesting that even established enterprise software providers may need to adapt to the disruptive changes brought about by AI in system modernization.