IBM Bob Is Here
The platform-neutral, AI-driven IDE became generally available March 24 as IBM highlighted early case studies
Enterprises looking for ways to ease modernization projects while overcoming skills challenges have a new tool at their disposal. IBM Bob, an AI-driven integrated development environment, became generally available March 24.
The platform-neutral IBM Bob is designed to aid in modernization by analyzing application logic and software dependencies, transforming code written in legacy languages like COBOL and fixed-format RPG, generating new code and automating testing. Technologists have been waiting to test these capabilities since fall 2025, when Bob was introduced at IBM TechXchange as “Project Bob,” but some have already had a chance to experiment with the tool.
Early Testing
One of those to get their hands on Bob during an early access period was the healthcare software provider MEDHOST. During an online presentation hosted by IBM, MEDHOST Senior VP of Technology Michael Bowen called IBM Bob a “force multiplier” for the organization.
Based on the small use cases they have experienced so far, “we believe in certain projects it could reduce our manual effort up to 50%,” Bowen said. And in prototyping software, Bob can generate proofs of concept in minutes when the task would take hours if done manually, he added.
Other reports from the early access period were even more dramatic. MR Williams, a convenience store distributor, tried Bob on projects to improve accounting workflows, establish new mobile capabilities for operations teams and update application interfaces. The result was an 18x increase in developer speed, Amy Blea, IBM Power chief of staff, said in another online presentation marking Bob’s GA.
Bridging Skills Gaps, Reducing Risk
IBM is positioning Bob as a tool to help overcome the skills shortages that occur when technologists retire after accumulating decades of knowledge about mission-critical enterprise systems. As their replacements come aboard, Bob’s ability to understand complex, underdocumented business logic is “invaluable,” Bowen said.
Blea presented Bob a risk reduction tool, since it can assess how changes to applications will impact systems downstream. This, she said, gives enterprises confidence they can maintain stability during modernization projects.
“Every time you have to touch code, you’re not just writing code or making changes or improvements; you’re also managing risk,” Blea said. “The biggest pressure isn’t just the deadlines that you have, but it’s really the fear of breaking something that the business depends on.”
But IT departments also see risk in AI itself. Blea addressed this concern, too. While Bob is designed to suggest safe, repeatable modernization patterns, each step it takes is “transparent, reviewable and gated by you,” Blea said.
“ … So you can make really educated decisions before you make your changes, which reduces the risk. It can also help you extract business logic and rules from old code, which really tends to be the hardest and riskiest part of modernization.”
How to Try Bob
A fork of VS Code, IBM Bob exists as a standalone IDE. Users are billed in Bobcoins, an abstraction of tokens, the technical units used by AI to process information. Each action performed by Bob consumes a certain number of Bobcoins, depending on the compute resources required.
Bobcoins are valued at $.50 USD apiece under the base package, but anyone curious about Bob can obtain 40 free Bobcoins to use over the course of 30 days. Register for the free trial here.