AI Coding Assistant (Preview, Superseded)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 This preview track was superseded by IBM Bob, which reached general availability in March 2026.

Vendor: IBM Operating environment: Announced for IBM i development tooling in VS Code, alongside the IBM i extension pack Deployment: Announced November 2025 as an upcoming product; never reached independent general availability

IBM announced watsonx Code Assistant for i on November 19, 2025 as an upcoming, IBM i-specific AI coding assistant, aimed at the same problem every long-tenured IBM i shop has: a large body of fixed-format RPG that is hard to read, hard to hire for, and slow to modernize by hand. It was IBM's first IBM i-specific watsonx-branded coding product to be announced. That preview track was subsequently succeeded by IBM Bob, which reached general availability on March 24, 2026.

What it was announced to do

Fixed-to-free-format conversion

Announced to assist developers in converting legacy fixed-format RPG into modern free-format RPG, a common first step in an IBM i modernization project.

Code explanation

Announced to help a developer who did not write a given RPG program understand what it does.

watsonx.ai foundation

Positioned as built on watsonx.ai foundation models tuned for RPG, as part of IBM's broader watsonx Code Assistant family.

What replaced it

The RPG-focused AI coding assistant track out of IBM's Rochester lab that watsonx Code Assistant for i previewed was superseded by IBM Bob (originally shown as "Project Bob" at TechXchange in October 2025), which reached general availability 1.0.0 on March 24, 2026. Bob, not watsonx Code Assistant for i, is IBM's current, shipping AI coding agent for IBM i. See the IBM Bob listing for what is actually available today.

This listing is preserved for historical context. Do not budget a project around watsonx Code Assistant for i as an independently available product ... for current AI-assisted RPG development and modernization on IBM i, see IBM Bob.

Related

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 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.

ARCAD Software

An IBM i DevOps and application lifecycle management vendor offering source code management, testing, and modernization tooling relevant to AI-assisted RPG modernization projects.

Fresche Solutions

An IBM i modernization vendor known for RPG application analysis and transformation tooling, relevant to shops planning AI-assisted or vendor-led RPG modernization.

Related Reading

What Is IBM Bob? IBM's AI Coding Agent for RPG on IBM i Explained

IBM Bob is IBM's current, generally available AI coding agent for IBM i. Here is what it actually does, how it succeeded the earlier watsonx Code Assistant for i preview, and what to confirm before you commit.

AI Code Assistants for RPG and COBOL Compared: What Actually Works on IBM i

IBM Bob, GitHub Copilot, and general-purpose chat assistants all get used near RPG and COBOL code. Here is how they actually differ for IBM i modernization work.

AI-Assisted RPG Modernization: From Fixed-Format to Free-Format and Beyond

AI-assisted RPG modernization is one piece of a larger modernization picture. Here is how fixed-to-free-format conversion fits alongside DevOps tooling and UI modernization.