On October 5, colleagues Koen Vanderkimpen of Smals Research and Wim Lambrecht of Smals gave a talk at Devoxx Belgium, the annual developer conference in Antwerp, to an audience of around 500 interested attendees. The talk was titled “Modernizing legacy code with AI: hands-on examples & lessons learned.” The topic clearly caught the interest of many attendees, a sign that legacy code is still very much a live issue for many software developers.

AI helps developers write new software faster. But can it also help modernize legacy applications? In this session, Smals Research shares practical experience from real e-government projects. Through the migration of ageing Java applications from Java EE to Jakarta EE, the speakers explore how AI supports software modernization. Topics include namespace changes, deprecated APIs, outdated dependencies and complex build configurations. The session highlights where AI genuinely accelerates migration work, where it falls short, and how teams can keep modernization efforts reliable and verifiable. Drawing on additional experience with other legacy environments, including COBOL, the speakers also share practical approaches for documenting, rewriting and maintaining legacy code with AI assistance. Whether you’re modernizing an existing application or exploring AI-assisted development, this session offers a realistic view of what AI can and cannot do today.

Recording

Presentation