Announcing the IBM Bob Premium Package for i: Accelerating IBM i application development and modernization
Today, IBM is announcing the general availability of the IBM Bob Premium Package for i, bringing AI-powered development and modernization capabilities directly to IBM i teams.
Modernizing IBM i applications requires more than AI-assisted coding. It requires AI that understands decades of business logic, specialized languages and the workflows enterprise teams rely on to modernize mission-critical systems with confidence.
Today, IBM is announcing the general availability of the IBM Bob Premium Package for i, bringing AI-powered development and modernization capabilities directly to IBM i teams. IBM Bob is an AI-first development partner for enterprise developers that helps plan, execute, validate and govern modernization tasks across the software development lifecycle. With the Premium Package for i, IBM Bob extends that experience with IBM i-specific capabilities designed for mission-critical IBM i application estates, including RPG, COBOL, CL, Db2 for i and native IBM i development workflows that support the real-world modernization needs of enterprise teams.
Built for how IBM i developers actually work, the Premium Package for i helps teams understand complex code, generate and refactor applications, create documentation, support testing and modernize with greater speed and confidence while preserving the business logic that organizations depend on every day.
The IBM Bob Premium Package for i is designed to work directly with live IBM i environments, source members and application context. Developers can read, write and compile code in workflow, reducing the need to copy source into disconnected tools or switch between fragmented development experiences. Because Bob connects natively to IBM i, AI assistance is grounded in real application structure and platform context. This helps developers receive more accurate explanations, cleaner outputs and modernization guidance aligned with IBM i development practices. By bringing AI directly into the IBM i workflow, teams can move faster while maintaining the control, reliability and confidence required for mission-critical applications.
That direct context can translate into meaningful time savings when developers need to investigate and document application behavior. Jasmine Kaczmarek, Vice President of Technology at convenience store distributor M.R. Williams, shared: “With just 20 minutes and the help of the tool, I was able to investigate a report, trace the field logic, understand the calculation, and document the issue. What had taken a senior developer six hours the day before, I was able to accomplish 18X faster.”
The Premium Package for i introduces curated skills and agentic workflows optimized for common IBM i development and modernization tasks. These capabilities help developers explain complex RPG and COBOL programs, convert Fixed-Format RPG to modern Free-Format RPG, refactor monolithic applications into modular structures, generate RPG, CL, COBOL and DDS code, create technical documentation and produce unit tests to support validation.
Rather than relying on generic prompts and inconsistent results, IBM i teams can use expert-built skills that deliver more predictable, repeatable and higher-quality outcomes. Agentic workflows help guide multi-step development tasks from understanding and planning through implementation and validation, allowing developers to modernize incrementally without losing control.
Database mode equips Bob—via skills and agentic workflows—to enable IBM i development team to analyze, optimize and troubleshoot queries and provide deep knowledge on SQL and legacy DDS. This mode will fill the skill gap of an experienced database engineer that IBM i development teams do not have today.
Teams are also seeing stronger planning support from the solution. Bob Richardson, ERP Support Analyst at Wynne Systems, shared: “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.”
IBM Bob can also help preserve knowledge locked in large and undocumented codebases. Marina Schwenk, a Senior Programmer at Innovative Software Solutions, shared: “When we got access to Bob, we started immediately documenting 90,000+ line programs. Bob was able to list and label all the inputs/outputs and file structures, as well as its uses and important logic. Most importantly, Bob created documentation that we were able to give to brand new developers just starting on their IBM i journey.”
Together, native IBM i connectivity, curated skills, and agentic workflows make the IBM Bob Premium Package for i more than a coding assistant. Rather than introducing standalone capabilities, the Premium Package extends IBM Bob with IBM’s decades of IBM i expertise through purpose-built workflows, specialized skills and deep platform context, helping teams modernize with greater confidence while continuing to deliver reliable applications.
Want to give Bob a try? Explore our free trial