AI-driven modernization is changing how the DOW addresses decades of technical debt, limited system documentation, aging development environments, and shrinking pools of personnel familiar with mission-critical legacy code. With the advent of AI coding agents, understanding complex systems and coordinating modernization activities for migration to cloud-native and containerized environments has become commonplace among even non-technical audiences.

Many Air Force and Space Force business and weapon systems are decades old and still rely on legacy programming languages such as Ada, C/C++, COBOL, FORTRAN, and others. This makes sustainment less efficient and creates a growing talent challenge, as newer professionals often seek opportunities to build skills on more modern, innovative technologies. This session explores how AI agents can rapidly reverse-engineer Business and Enterprise Systems (BES) Directorate and Space Force applications written in legacy coding languages (COBOL, PL/I, JCL, RPG, etc.). These agents can analyze repositories, reconstruct system architecture, map dependencies and integration points, identify obsolete components, and modernize systems in minutes. Additionally, modern agents build necessary documentation in parallel, giving modernization teams a clearer understanding of what a system does, how its components interact, and where changes can be made without introducing unnecessary operational risk.

This session presents real-world case studies from Business and Enterprise Systems (BES) Directorate and Space Force programs demonstrating AI-assisted modernization of mission-critical legacy systems.

This discussion goes well beyond code generation and refactoring. Come see how specialized AI agents can work together to help Air Force and Space Force DevSecOps teams develop modernization plans, upgrade frameworks and dependencies, review code, identify vulnerabilities, document changes, and validate results against established engineering standards. These approaches directly improve mission readiness by reducing system fragility, accelerating change delivery, and ensuring continuity of operations during modernization.

Participants will learn how to:

• Use coding agents across the modernization lifecycle (from system discovery and planning through coding, testing, documentation, validation, and deployment).
• Understand undocumented legacy systems by reconstructing application architecture, mapping dependencies and interfaces, and explaining logic before changes begin.
• Modernize without disrupting ongoing operations by breaking complex transformations into controlled, testable increments that preserve mission continuity.
• Improve software security and reliability through automated refactoring, test generation, vulnerability detection, code review, and continuous validation.
• Scale governed modernization across Business and Enterprise Systems (BES) Directorate and Space Force portfolios using repeatable workflows, human approval points, auditable actions, and measurable reductions in time, effort, and rework.