Nearform

If you lead technology at a large business, you probably have a core system nobody wants to touch – perhaps it’s billing or order management. It still works, but it hasn’t changed in years. That’s often because the logic lives in the heads of a few people, and the person who built it is long gone. Leaving it alone has felt like the safe choice. Change something nobody fully understands, with nobody left to fix it, and the blame lands on whoever signed off the work. Now AI can take on the part that made this so risky. Before anyone alters a line, it can work through the codebase, map dependencies and write tests that capture how the system behaves today. That gives the team a safety net: if a change breaks something, they know straight away. And it’s not just theory. When Google used AI on 39 of its own large-scale code migrations, the model generated 74% of the code changes, and the engineers involved estimated it halved the total time compared with doing the work manually. For a long time, leaving that system alone was the sensible choice. That reason no longer holds. Clifton Cunningham, our SVP of Advisory & Alliances and a former CTO, has written about how he would make the case for fixing it now. You can take a look at 'The business case for AI-led modernisation' here: https://lnkd.in/efymP8UT

89% of executives report no impact from AI on labour productivity. With AI investment accelerating, that's a difficult number to ignore. But what if the problem isn't the technology? What if value is being lost in the decisions that shape AI initiatives, or with the teams responsible for the execution? In our next Impact talks webinar, bestselling author Barry O'Reilly and Nearform's VP of Strategic Growth, Jeremy Vianna, explore both ends of a complex situation, from the board room to the server room. Moderated by Peri Kadaster, Nearform's Chief Communications Officer. They'll challenge each other's thinking on where AI value is getting lost, and what leaders can do differently for their organisations, starting with their own decisions. 🗓️ Date: 27th October 09:00 PT | 12:00 noon ET | 16:00 BST 📌 Register to join >> https://nf.ie/Impact-talks #EnterpriseAI #AILeadership #ImpactTalks

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I don't know any CTO's who aren't spending some of their time today thinking about how to support - or drive - an AI transformation initiative in the knowledge that a core part of their business runs on something that is not only an active risk, but that is going to be incredibly difficult to exploit and integrate into agentic workflows that drive the real business value. Making the case for investment in foundational work while the focus needs to stay on the outcome afterwards has always been difficult, but now its existential and on the critical path. I've shared my thoughts below on different ways you can make this case, hopefully it helps!

Does your business have a 'Trevor' fix? A quick patch that's still running decades later. Discover three ways to make the case for AI-led legacy modernisation. Download the guide, written by a former CTO, for CTOs.

Somewhere in your systems, a rule like this is still running – and no-one knows how to stop it. Find out why now's the time to deal with it. Download the business case for AI modernisation. A guide for CTOs, written by a CTO.