Vendors are pitching AI as a cure-all for legacy IT systems, but is it?

At some point in your career, or at many points, you might have been asked to help with an IT modernization program, porting applications from older systems, such as mainframes, to newer systems, be they on-premises or in the cloud.

Modernization has been on CIO agendas for decades. Popular efforts have included web services, microservices, cloud, virtualization, and x86-based Windows and Linux servers. These efforts aimed to create more advanced and flexible systems.

When reflecting on these trends, it sometimes feels like modernization is always something that’s five years away. Now, it’s AI’s turn to modernize IT systems.

So far, AI implementations have bypassed technology modernization efforts, according to a survey of 2,000 senior IT decision-makers by IT services specialist Kyndryl. Only 10% of tech chiefs said they are applying agentic AI as a modernization tool. The burning question: Will AI eventually make a difference where earlier efforts have fallen short? Or is AI just another elixir in a never-ending quest?

The results of modernization, as we’ve known it, have been less than stellar. Kyndryl researchers found that modernization is often just another expensive, time-consuming project.

“Only about half of those modernizing report achieving better IT operations, and less than half are seeing innovation gains,” the study’s authors observed.

” In addition, almost half of respondents said they are behind schedule and suffering cost overruns.

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