GoKawiilOpenAI claims AI gains in converting legacy COBOL code to modern languages
OpenAI announced on October 19th that its latest AI models show improved ability to migrate old software written in legacy languages like COBOL into modern code. The company says this could help organizations maintain and modernize aging systems still embedded in banking, government and other critical infrastructure.
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COBOL underpins a huge share of global financial infrastructure, according to IBM figures cited in the report, including over 40 percent of online banking systems and 95 percent of ATM transactions, yet few engineers want to work with it today. If AI-assisted code migration proves reliable, it could ease a long-standing modernization bottleneck that one estimate pegs at costing the US economy around $105 billion annually, though the report does not confirm whether OpenAI's tools have been tested on production-critical systems.
- OpenAI says its newest models show improved migration of legacy code, including COBOL, to modern languages.
- COBOL, created in 1959, still powers large portions of banking, credit card, ATM and government systems worldwide.
- Replacing legacy languages like COBOL and Fortran has long been difficult, with inefficiencies estimated to cost the US economy roughly $105 billion a year.
Source: theverge.com — Robert Hart, 2026-10-26
Published there as: “Can AI help solve the COBOL code crisis?”
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