Accelerating mainframe modernization using generative AI
Thoughtworks Technology Podcast
Thoughtworks
4.7 • 53 Ratings
🗓️ 15 May 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mainframe modernization is hard: there's a huge amount of complexity that needs to be understood before it can be effectively addressed. Generative AI, however, can be a particularly powerful tool for understanding mainframe legacy codebases, something we've been exploring with Mechanical Orchard while working together on its Imogen modernization platform.
In this episode of the Technology Podcast, hosts Ken Mugrage and Alexey Boas are joined by Thoughtworks CTO Rachel Laycock and Mechanical Orchard CEO and Founder Rob Mee to discuss the partnership between the two organizations. They discuss how the collaboration began, the challenges of leveraging generative AI tools for such risky projects and what the wider implications are for AI in software engineering. Listen for a fresh perspective on both legacy modernization and generative AI.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the ThoughtWorks Technology Podcast. |
| 0:12.7 | We have a really cool episode today, talking about a recent partnership between mechanical orchard and ThoughtWorks. |
| 0:19.3 | So with me hosting today is Alexei. Alexei, you want to do a quick intro? Hello, everyone, and ThoughtWorks. So with me hosting today is Alexei. |
| 0:21.9 | Alexei, you want to do a quick intro? |
| 0:23.6 | Hello, everyone, and hi, Ken. |
| 0:25.3 | So I'm Lexi, speaking to you all from San Paul and Brazil. |
| 0:29.4 | Great pleasure to be here. |
| 0:31.2 | Thank you. |
| 0:31.7 | And our special guest, Rob Me, the CEO of Mechanical Orchard. |
| 0:34.9 | Do you want to do a quick intro? |
| 0:36.2 | Or maybe I just did, but... |
| 0:38.3 | Yeah, hi. |
| 0:39.4 | I'm Rob. |
| 0:39.8 | Good to be here. |
| 0:40.5 | Thanks for having me. |
| 0:41.7 | And then Rachel Aycock, the Global CTO for ThoughtWorks. |
| 0:45.8 | Hi, everyone. |
| 0:47.4 | So what we're going to be talking today is about a partnership that involves some software |
| 0:52.0 | that was created by Mechanical Orch or to a platform, I should say, |
| 0:55.2 | some consulting from ThoughtWorks and stuff about legacy modernization. For frequent listeners, |
| 1:00.6 | you may remember that back in November, we talked to a couple people about using generative |
| 1:05.7 | AI for legacy modernization. The topic of that, and if you haven't looked at it, it was November 28th, |
... |
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