BMC Software has announced new AI-powered innovations for its mainframe platform, embedding purpose-built artificial intelligence directly into the tools used by developers and operations teams. The new capabilities aim to address the growing mainframe skills gap, enabling organizations to capture institutional knowledge, improve application insights, and accelerate modernization across mission-critical systems.

As enterprises continue to rely on mainframes for high-volume transaction processing and critical workloads, maintaining and modernizing these systems has become increasingly challenging. A large portion of experienced mainframe professionals are nearing retirement, leaving organizations with limited access to the expertise needed to manage complex legacy environments.

To address this challenge, BMC Software has introduced new artificial intelligence capabilities designed specifically for mainframe workflows. These enhancements integrate AI directly into the operational tools developers and administrators use daily, providing contextual insights and automation across development, security, and operational processes.

AI for Mainframe Application Intelligence

One of the major additions expands the capabilities of the BMC AMI zAdviser Enterprise platform, which delivers AI-driven insights into mainframe development productivity.

The new zAdviser Enterprise Application Analysis feature combines multiple data sources—including source code analysis, telemetry from the BMC AMI DevX platform, and development performance metrics—to generate an AI-powered narrative intelligence report.

By consolidating information from previously disconnected systems, the platform enables IT leaders to identify application complexity, analyze stability patterns, and determine modernization priorities. The system also helps organizations evaluate application risk levels and pinpoint areas where institutional knowledge is heavily concentrated.

This capability is particularly valuable as organizations attempt to modernize legacy applications without losing operational continuity.

Addressing the Mainframe Skills Gap

According to BMC’s 2025 State of the Mainframe report, approximately 66% of the current workforce consists of Gen Z or millennial professionals, many of whom lack direct experience managing legacy mainframe systems.

To help bridge this gap, BMC has expanded the capabilities of BMC AMI Assistant, an AI-powered knowledge tool embedded across the BMC AMI platform.

The assistant integrates with organizational knowledge sources such as runbooks, service tickets, log files, and historical incident resolutions. By surfacing relevant insights directly within operational workflows, the system enables newer developers and operators to diagnose issues and resolve incidents faster.

John McKenny said the company’s approach focuses on embedding AI directly into the environments where mainframe teams work.

Rather than requiring engineers to search through legacy documentation or manually correlate system data, the AI tools provide contextual guidance and operational intelligence in real time.

Automated Security and Certificate Management

BMC also introduced a new security solution designed to address upcoming changes in digital certificate management requirements.

The BMC AMI Digital Certificate Management platform automates certificate lifecycle management for mainframe environments. The solution is designed to help enterprises prepare for upcoming industry changes that will shorten SSL/TLS certificate lifespans from 398 days to just 47 days by 2029.

By automating certificate provisioning, monitoring, and renewal processes, the platform reduces the risk of outages and compliance issues caused by manual certificate management.

The system integrates with enterprise certificate platforms from vendors including Venafi and Keyfactor, allowing organizations to automate certificate lifecycle management without modifying existing infrastructure.

Expanding AI-Driven Workflow Orchestration

Beyond mainframe operations, BMC also announced new enhancements to its Control-M workload automation platform.

The company introduced Control-M Archive Service, a new cloud-native capability that automatically archives job logs and execution data. The archive system provides a long-term repository designed for auditing, compliance reporting, and post-execution analysis.

Control-M plays a central role in orchestrating workflows across hybrid IT environments, connecting mainframe workloads with cloud infrastructure and distributed applications.

These capabilities are part of BMC’s broader strategy to support agentic AI orchestration, where autonomous AI agents coordinate business processes across multiple systems and technologies.

Analyst Perspective on AI-Driven Mainframe Transformation

Industry analysts note that AI is becoming an essential component of modern mainframe operations.

Steve Dickens stated that BMC’s latest innovations demonstrate how AI can capture decades of institutional knowledge and apply it through context-aware automation.

By embedding AI directly into operational workflows, organizations can maintain the reliability of mainframe systems while enabling new generations of engineers to manage increasingly complex IT environments.

The Future of Mainframes in the AI Era

Despite predictions that cloud computing would replace legacy systems, mainframes remain a cornerstone of enterprise infrastructure for industries such as banking, government, healthcare, and telecommunications.

Analysts at IDC report that enterprises continue to modernize mainframe environments rather than replace them entirely, integrating them with cloud platforms and AI-driven automation tools.

Solutions that combine AI intelligence, automation, and institutional knowledge capture are becoming essential for organizations seeking to maintain operational resilience while preparing for the next generation of IT professionals.

With these new AI-powered capabilities, BMC aims to ensure that mainframes remain a vital component of enterprise computing in the era of intelligent automation.

Market Landscape

Mainframes remain critical infrastructure for industries that require high reliability, security, and transaction processing scale.

Research from Gartner indicates that many organizations are investing in mainframe modernization strategies rather than replacing these systems, integrating them with cloud platforms, DevOps pipelines, and AI-driven automation tools.

At the same time, organizations are addressing the mainframe skills shortage by adopting AI-powered tools that help new developers understand legacy systems and maintain operational continuity.

Top Insights

• BMC introduced AI-powered enhancements for its mainframe tools to help organizations modernize and manage critical applications.

• The new zAdviser Enterprise Application Analysis provides AI-generated insights into application complexity, stability, and modernization priorities.

• BMC AMI Assistant surfaces institutional knowledge from runbooks, tickets, and logs to help developers resolve issues faster.

• The BMC AMI Digital Certificate Management solution automates SSL/TLS certificate lifecycle management for mainframe environments.

• Enhancements to the Control-M platform introduce automated archiving capabilities to support auditing and compliance in hybrid environments.

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