COBOL: What if AI became your co-pilot for critical systems?

A language still at the heart of business

Banks, insurance companies, governments, airlines, retail… everywhere, COBOL still powers the most critical systems.
And yet, with every regulatory change, new business rule, or contract update, the same question comes back:

👉 “Who is going to update the code?”

Because while COBOL can be learned quickly, it’s really the tools, processes, and rare expertise that make it complex.

The challenge: updating COBOL in 2025

Every business update (e.g. a new collective agreement, tax rule, or billing policy) requires:

  • Identifying the impacted sections across millions of lines of code.
  • Understanding the business logic hidden in nested IFs and legacy calculations.
  • Updating the code precisely without breaking production.
  • Validating and documenting the changes to ensure compliance.

The problem? COBOL experts are retiring, juniors struggle to enter the mainframe ecosystem, and processes (JCL, IMS, Endeavor, ISPF) remain heavy and manual.

What Bosqweb brings today

Bosqweb doesn’t replace your developers. It acts as a smart co-pilot:

  • COBOL code analysis (including JCL, DB2, IMS).
  • Identifying impacted areas by business or regulatory changes.
  • Automatic documentation in plain technical + business language.
  • Targeted modification suggestions:
    • Add a new IF condition.
    • Adapt a calculation to a regulatory change.
    • Insert a new field into a DB2 table.
  • Ready-to-use snippets (generated COBOL or SQL patches).

👉 The result: your teams save days, even weeks, while keeping full control of the code.

What Bosqweb is preparing for tomorrow

We are moving toward progressive automation, always with a final human validation step:

  1. Semi-automated mode:
    Bosqweb generates a full COBOL patch from a business instruction (“add a 2% raise for category B employees”).
    → A developer validates before integration.
  2. Automated mode with safeguards:
    Integrated with Git/Endeavor: Bosqweb proposes a commit, triggers sandbox tests, and waits for human validation before production.

Why this matters for every industry

  • Banking & Insurance: quickly adapt rates, premiums, or financial products.
  • Government: implement payroll or tax rules in days, not months.
  • Airlines: update fare or booking rules without risk.
  • Retail: adjust taxation or large-scale promotions in legacy systems.

Everywhere, the same challenge: act fast, reduce risks, compensate for the shortage of experts.

Our philosophy: keep control

Bosqweb is not a risky autopilot.
It’s a reliable co-pilot that:

  • Finds and explains required changes.
  • Prepares modifications.
  • Always leaves the final decision to a human before production.

Conclusion

COBOL will remain at the heart of critical systems for a long time.
The real challenge is not replacing it, but augmenting it with the right tools.

👉 With Bosqweb, your teams gain speed, confidence, and efficiency.
Because modernizing COBOL doesn’t mean throwing it away: it means making it smarter.

Want to see Bosqweb analyze your own COBOL programs and suggest concrete optimizations? Request a free demo today.