Kyndryl launches AI-driven modernisation services on Bridge

Kyndryl has launched Agentic Modernization services-as-software through its Kyndryl Bridge platform, packaging its engineering work into pre-defined, AI-driven workflows for enterprise modernisation.

The offering is built on what Kyndryl calls its Agentic AI Framework and targets organisations upgrading legacy technology estates. It combines software-driven automation with human oversight, with customer teams and Kyndryl specialists retaining responsibility for governance and accountability.

Kyndryl is presenting the model as a shift away from large, one-off transformation programmes toward ongoing change managed through reusable workflows. Those workflows span infrastructure, applications and business operations, including discovery, code analysis, dependency mapping, target-state design, code generation, testing and validation.

Ismail Amla, Senior Vice President, Kyndryl Consult, said many organisations now need to treat modernisation as a continuous activity rather than a periodic project.

"Modernization is becoming an operating discipline rather than a series of labor-intensive transformation programs that are difficult to scale and disruption-prone," Amla said.

He added that faster technology change is forcing businesses to adapt their systems more regularly.

"As technology innovation accelerates exponentially, organizations need to move toward continuous modernization so they can adapt faster to changing business needs. With Agentic Modernization services-as-software, customers can transform iteratively and seamlessly using proven agentic workflows designed to handle changing business priorities and built on Kyndryl's deep mission-critical expertise and industrialized through Kyndryl Bridge, enabling faster execution and more predictable outcomes," Amla said.

AI and legacy systems

The launch comes as companies continue to invest heavily in AI while struggling to show returns. Kyndryl cited a survey of 1,100 business and technology leaders that found 77 per cent of executives said generative AI had already been scaled across multiple functions, while 32 per cent said they had achieved one of their top intended outcomes.

That gap is one reason providers are tying AI adoption more closely to core systems work. Legacy estates, particularly in regulated industries and mainframe environments, often remain a barrier to introducing newer tools at scale.

Bill Latshaw, Research Director, Worldwide Business Consulting Services, IDC, said the industry is moving toward AI-assisted modernisation with stronger governance controls.

"Agentic AI is reshaping how enterprises think about modernization, moving the conversation from large, episodic transformation projects to continuous, agent-orchestrated implementations guided by human expertise," Latshaw said.

"Kyndryl's Agentic Modernization services-as-software, with Kyndryl Bridge as the foundation, reflects that shift, combining pre-defined AI workflows and operational expertise, critically with the governance and guardrails needed to enable organizations to modernize with greater speed and consistency by reducing indecision and complexity traps," he added.

Bridge foundation

Kyndryl Bridge sits at the centre of the launch. Kyndryl said the platform is already used by more than 1,400 customers to manage and modernise complex IT environments and generates more than 16 million AI insights a month.

According to the company, Bridge has helped reduce IT incidents by up to 50 per cent in some cases. It also provides controls around cost visibility, security and regulatory requirements, alongside what Kyndryl described as agentic memory management designed to retain operational knowledge over time.

Kyndryl argues that the software layer allows specialist expertise to be reused across multiple customer projects rather than applied manually each time. In practice, pre-built workflows are intended to handle repeatable tasks while engineers focus on decisions specific to a customer's environment.

Early customer work

Kyndryl cited several customer examples across sectors. A global car rental company is using its AI agents to refactor legacy code, with Kyndryl saying work that previously took hours can now be completed in minutes.

In insurance, a global reinsurer used the service to examine a decades-old mainframe estate containing millions of lines of code, according to Kyndryl. The work was intended to support a move to a cloud-native architecture, and Kyndryl said it cut planned data centre exit timelines by 50 per cent.

A global financial services organisation has also deployed the service across engineering teams worldwide, the company said. That customer is using AI-driven operational insights and pre-defined workflows to speed up modernisation activity across the business.

The launch also fits Kyndryl's broader effort to expand its consulting and transformation work with large enterprise customers. As one of the biggest IT infrastructure services groups, it has a substantial installed base in older and heavily regulated systems, giving it a commercial opening to link AI adoption with the work of updating core platforms.

Its message is that AI projects and modernisation programmes can no longer be treated separately. Kyndryl said the service is designed to help organisations change legacy environments more quickly while keeping human oversight in place.

Those workflows are intended to support modernisation across distributed and mainframe systems, public and private cloud, network infrastructure, software development and IT operations.