Modern IBM i developers are balancing more demands than ever before. They maintain proven business-critical applications, modernize RPG code, deliver new features faster, and onboard new team members all while ensuring stability and reliability. The challenge is not simply just writing code. It is understanding complex systems, coordinating changes across environments, and maintaining quality at scale. Many traditional development tools and even generic AI assistants struggle in enterprise environments because they lack the deep context needed to understand large codebases and interconnected systems.
That is why IBM has been working on IBM Bob, an AI-powered development partner designed to support enterprise development workflows. While IBM will share more details soon about how Bob will support IBM i environments, early previews and feedback from the community already highlight the potential of this approach to transform how developers work. Rather than acting as a simple coding assistant, IBM Bob is designed to understand developer intent, analyze real enterprise codebases, and assist across multiple stages of the software delivery lifecycle from planning and analysis to implementation and validation.
What Could AI Mean for IBM i Developers?
Enterprise development rarely involves a single isolated change. Most real-world work requires coordinated updates across multiple files, modules, and dependencies. Early users of IBM Bob have highlighted how AI systems that understand repository-level context can help developers reason through complex projects more efficiently. This includes helping teams analyze large codebases, identify relationships between components, and plan multi-step development work. For IBM i teams working with RPG and long-running enterprise applications, this type of contextual understanding could help reduce the time required to understand existing systems and accelerate modernization initiatives.
Early Feedback from the Community
IBM has been working with early users to explore how AI-assisted development can support real enterprise workloads. Several early participants have highlighted the depth of analysis and planning that Bob can provide when reasoning about complex development tasks:
"What I noticed about IBM Bob almost immediately was the level of detail provided as compared to other AIs. I like using AI to build and execute plans for specific projects. Given the exact same prompt, Bob's planning was always 10-fold more detailed than other AIs. More specifics, more details, and provided a better understanding of the steps through the project from beginning to end." – Bob Richardson, Wynne Systems
Another early participant emphasized how AI-assisted analysis can help teams working with large and aging codebases:
"One of the prevalent problems that many shops face is the lack of documentation, large code bases, and an older code base. IBM Bob helped solve all of that.” – Marina Schwenk, Innovative Software Solutions
These early reactions highlight the opportunity to help IBM i teams better understand and evolve the systems that run their businesses.
AI Assistance for RPG and Enterprise Codebases
IBM Bob is designed to work across enterprise languages and environments, including RPG, COBOL, and SQL. For IBM i developers, this opens up several important possibilities. Bob can generate contextual explanations of existing RPG programs, product documentation directly from real codebases, and help identify potential modernization opportunities. It can also assist in coordinating changes across multiple files and modules while supporting safer updates to complex applications. For organizations managing large IBM i environments, these capabilities can help development teams move faster while maintaining the reliability expectations required for mission-critical applications and workloads.
Supporting the Entire Development Team
One of the most promising aspects of AI-assisted development is how it can support developers at every experience level. Experienced developers may spend less time deciphering unfamiliar code. New developers can ramp up faster with contextual explanations and documentation. Architects gain greater visibility into system dependencies and structure. By helping surface insights from existing systems, tools like IBM Bob could also help preserve institutional knowledge and reduce reliance on individual experts.
Get Started with IBM Bob for IBM i
IBM Bob represents a new approach to enterprise development, one that helps IBM i teams move faster, understand more, and modernize with confidence while preserving the reliability their businesses depend on. As AI continues to reshape how software is built and maintained, now is the time to explore what an AI-powered development partner can do for your organization. Experience it firsthand by registering for a free trial of IBM Bob and see how it can accelerate your workflows, enhance code understanding, and unlock new levels of productivity for your team. Get started today here.