AI Tools & Platforms

AI Coding Agent for IBM i Modernization

IBM Bob (Project Bob)

IBM's current, generally available AI coding agent for IBM i, built as a fork of Visual Studio Code and tuned for RPG, CL, DDS, and SQL development and modernization work.

IBM Downloadable AI coding agent; general availability since March 24, 2026

Enterprise AI Platform

IBM watsonx.ai

IBM's studio for building, tuning, and deploying foundation models and generative AI applications, and the underlying AI layer other watsonx products are built on.

IBM Cloud (IBM Cloud); some watsonx capabilities are also available via IBM Cloud Pak for Data for on-premises deployment

AI Coding Assistant (Preview, Superseded)

IBM watsonx Code Assistant for i

IBM's November 2025 preview announcement of an IBM i-specific, RPG-focused AI code assistant. This preview track was superseded by IBM Bob, which reached general availability in March 2026.

IBM Announced November 2025 as an upcoming product; never reached independent general availability

Conversational AI Platform

IBM watsonx Assistant

IBM's general-purpose conversational AI platform for building chatbots and virtual assistants. Not IBM i-specific, but relevant for shops building conversational front ends over IBM i or Db2 for i data.

IBM Cloud (IBM Cloud)

AI Agent & Automation Platform

IBM watsonx Orchestrate

IBM's AI agent and workflow automation platform. Not IBM i-specific, but relevant to shops looking to automate multi-step processes that touch IBM i systems alongside other business applications.

IBM Cloud (IBM Cloud)

AI Agent Connectivity Layer for Db2 for i

IBM i MCP Server

An open-source, IBM-published Model Context Protocol server that lets AI agents and LLMs query Db2 for i data, inspect system objects, and take defined actions on IBM i using natural language.

IBM Open-source MCP server (self-hosted); beta since October 2025