AiThority Interview with Keri Olson, VP at IBM IT Automation

Next month, IBM will showcase its latest generative AI-assisted product, watsonx Code Assistant for Z, at TechXchange, IBM’s premier technical learning event in Las Vegas, Sept 11-13. As a buildup to the event, we reviewed Watsonx Code Assistant for Z’s generative AI and automated tooling capabilities for application DevOps and modernization lifecycle. We sat down with IBM’s Keri Olson, the head of product management and strategy for the watsonx Code Assistant portfolio

Here’s what Keri had to say about the AI capabilities of watsonx Code Assistant for Z.

Hi, Keri. You have made some significant updates to watsonx’s capabilities in the recent weeks. Could you highlight how these updates improve business agility and resilience?

Keri: As enterprises turn to AI, they need access to a full technology stack that enables them to train, tune and deploy AI models, including foundation models and machine learning capabilities, across their organization with trusted data, speed, and governance. Earlier this year at Think 2023, we unveiled the watsonx platform to meet these needs.

Businesses need AI that produces accurate and trustworthy results, can scale across clouds, and can be easily adapted to enterprise domains and use cases. We’ve designed watsonx to help address those needs.

We have just announced watsonx Code Assistant for Z as a new addition to the watsonx Code Assistant product family, along with IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Red Hat Ansible Lightspeed, a solution for Ansible playbook generation which is scheduled for release later this year.

As we continue to build on the capabilities of watsonx across industries, the goal is to enable generative AI to help businesses address gaps in their workflows–such as broadening their access to developer skills, enabling faster time to value for projects, and improving agility to more rapidly address evolving market demands.

What are the key features of watsonx Code Assistant for Z? Which coding languages does it support?

Keri: watsonx Code Assistant for Z accelerates application modernization through translation of COBOL business services to well architected high-quality Java code. This product is powered by IBM’s watsonx.ai code model, which will have knowledge of 115 programming languages, including Java, C++ and Python, having learned from 1.5 trillion tokens when the product is generally available in Q4. 

This product allows businesses to seamlessly leverage generative AI and automated tooling to accelerate mainframe application modernization while preserving the performance, security and resiliency capabilities of IBM Z. It will, analyze, refactor, transform and validate COBOL applications utilizing an incremental, in-place modernization lifecycle. Specific benefits for clients include:

• Accelerating code development and increasing developer productivity throughout the application modernization lifecycle
• Managing total cost, complexity, and risk of application modernization initiatives, including translation and optimization of code in-place on IBM Z
• Expanding access to a broader pool of IT skills and accelerating developer on-boarding
• Achieving high quality, easy to maintain code through the application of best practices

What is the meaning of code automation? What is IBM doing with generative AI to modernize mainframe application development?

Keri: Code automation accelerates the translation, refactoring, and validation of code. IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z allows faster translation from COBOL code to Java code. By rapidly converting COBOL code to Java optimized for IBM Z, the product will help to accelerate modernization projects and lessen the impact of developer skills challenges for businesses.

The generative AI-assisted product will help developers more quickly assess, update, validate and test the right code, allowing them to more efficiently modernize large applications and focus on higher impact tasks. The overall goal is to utilize generative AI to ultimately drive progress, productivity and profitability for clients. 

What is the need to transform COBOL to Java code? What are the advantages of bringing generative AI and LLMs into this environment?

Keri: COBOL is a data processing language that supports many vital businesses and operational processes at organizations globally. It underpins the business processes of many financial services, insurance and government organizations and we’ve estimated that about 84 percent of IBM Z clients use COBOL.

The use of generative AI in watsonx Code Assistant for Z, compared to other approaches, makes it easier for developers to selectively and incrementally transform COBOL business services into well architected high-quality Java code.

How does IBM intend to manage the TCO and security bottlenecks commonly associated with the application modernization initiatives?

Keri: Current market solutions for these challenges are dated and risky. We believe our clients deserve better than modernization approaches that take risky shortcuts. 

While other solutions completely rewrite all applications or migrate applications to the public cloud, this is often too costly and risky for clients. Current AI-assisted partial re-write technology does not have strong COBOL support and can run the risk of exposing customer IP to the public. The new product from IBM is taking a new approach to COBOL to Java translation. 

Specifically, IBM’s new solution is designed to accelerate and streamline the approach to modernization, including bringing trusted generative AI to power a “fit for purpose” approach. IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z is targeted and optimized, focused on delivering well-architected, high-quality Java that developers can easily maintain, plus tooling to support the end to end modernization lifecycle. 

Could you please highlight a unique case study that highlights the efficiency and effectiveness of IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z in the application development environment?

Keri: Broadridge Financial reports that their collaboration with IBM is an important element to leverage generative AI interfaces to challenge legacy approaches with material productivity gains. IBM has been able to help Broadridge reinvent their Capital Markets solutions, and they are exploring the use of watsonx Code Assistant for Z to addressother specific use cases. 

What’s next with IBM watsonx Code Assistant for Z? Could we see watsonx supporting larger Open Source projects in future?

Keri: We are designing and expanding capabilities to provide tooling for every step in an organization’s modernization journey. The comprehensive solution will include capabilities from IBM’s Application Discovery and Delivery Intelligence (ADDI) inventory and analysis tool, which clients can use to better understand the business logic embedded in mainframe applications.

Beyond this Z-focused solution, the broader watsonx Code Assistant product portfolio will expand over time to address other programming languages and high value use cases. 

Thank you, Keri! That was fun and we hope to see you back on AiThority.com soon.