Mainframes are known for handling large workloads with high scalability, reliability, and security. They continue to be essential for many industries, including most of the world’s top banks, airlines, and retailers.
Over the past 20 years, Mainframes have evolved from legacy systems to modern platforms. Today, they support containerisation, DevOps, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and generative AI. The latest IBM Z processors take this further by enabling fast, low-latency generative AI directly on the Mainframe.
Many companies face a shortage of Mainframe experts. Experienced workers are retiring, new talent is hard to find, and Mainframes require specialized skills. The key question is: how can organizations attract new talent and pass on knowledge before it’s lost?
According to Gartner, using generative AI with Mainframe systems can help address the skills gap. This creates an important opportunity for IBM to offer a solution.
IBM watsonx Assistant for Z is a generative AI tool designed to help solve Mainframe challenges. This article explains what it can do and how it helps.
Simplify Mainframe management with IBM watsonx Assistant for Z
IBM watsonx Assistant for Z is a chatbot designed to make Mainframe tasks easier. It provides expert guidance, automates complex steps, and helps both new and experienced IBM Z users.
The assistant speeds up learning, answers technical questions, and can be customized with your company’s own information.
What makes it different from other Chatbots?
Smarter conversations with AI
Watsonx Assistant for Z gives fast, accurate answers by using both IBM Z documentation and your company’s own knowledge. It uses retrieval augmented generation (RAG) to pull information from trusted sources, so responses are reliable and relevant.
The system includes content from over 200 IBM Z products, including IBM Redbooks and technical papers. You can also add your own documents, such as internal guides and best practices, to customize the answers for your team.
The assistant uses the granite-3-8b-instruct language model, which is trained on a large and carefully selected dataset. IBM follows strict rules for data quality, filtering out misleading content to improve accuracy and reduce errors in responses.
Connects with your tools and systems
Watsonx Assistant for Z works with many platforms that support Open API, such as Ansible, AIOps tools, z/OS Management Facility (z/OSMF), and ServiceNow. You can follow the assistant’s suggestions and run tasks directly from the chat without needing deep Mainframe knowledge.
It also supports custom skills based on your specific needs. The assistant can connect with existing JCL and REXX programs and run them through simple chat commands. This makes complex Mainframe tasks much easier to handle.
Customisable for your team
Watsonx Assistant for Z can be tailored to fit different users, teams, and permission levels. You can create up to 30 separate assistants to match your organization’s needs. It also lets you link related skills into skill-flows, helping you handle complete tasks from start to finish.
Benefits and use cases
By combining IBM Z documentation with your company’s own knowledge, watsonx Assistant for Z becomes a reliable tool for answering Mainframe-related questions.
When you add internal resources like coding standards, best practices, error codes, and policies, developers can quickly find what they need, solve problems faster, and get up to speed more easily. This also makes onboarding new Mainframe team members much smoother.
You can import Ansible playbook skills as JSON or YAML files and use REST APIs to run tasks like spool file management, dataset retrieval, and job monitoring—all from within the chat.
The same method works with z/OSMF, so you can add existing REXX or JCL automation into the assistant for even more value.
It also connects easily with ServiceNow, making it simple to create service tickets and perform incident analysis.
watsonx Assistant for Z works with AIOps tools such as OMEGAMON to help IT teams monitor system health, check CPU usage, and quickly respond to critical alerts. It also automates tasks such as SSL certificate renewals, system patching, and IMS performance checks.
You can manage all these tasks from one interface and connect the assistant to tools such as Slack or Microsoft Teams to send alerts to the right teams during system issues.
The assistant helps keep expert knowledge in one place, supports quick learning for new users, and gives instant answers. It reduces mistakes and makes Mainframe tasks easier for everyone.
Real-world Example: IBM CIO Office
IBM’s CIO office used watsonx Assistant for Z to improve Mainframe performance and support new users. The results included:
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75% faster Db2 system patching
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30% improvement in incident resolution time
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30% shorter learning curve for new users
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Business value achieved within 4 weeks of starting the project
Conclusion
IBM watsonx Assistant for Z is a complete solution that helps solve today’s Mainframe skill challenges and makes the user experience easier and more efficient.
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