In its latest research report, Innovation Insight: AI-Augmented Code Modernization Tools (October 2025), Gartner recognized Devsu as a representative vendor shaping the next era of intelligent software transformation.

This mention reflects years of strategic investment in VelX, Devsu’s AI-driven modernization platform, and reinforces a truth the market is quickly realizing: the future of modernization is not manual, it’s AI-assisted, human-guided, and value-focused.

The Era of AI-Augmented Modernization

Modernizing legacy applications has always been one of the biggest challenges for enterprise technology leaders. Aging codebases, brittle architectures, and deep dependencies often slow innovation and inflate costs. According to Gartner, 44% of enterprises identify technical debt among their top three challenges, a figure that continues to climb as digital transformation accelerates.

Historically, modernization was a manual, time-consuming effort involving rule-based scripts, code reviews, and significant developer hours. But with the rise of AI-augmented modernization tools, this dynamic is shifting dramatically.

Gartner predicts that by 2029, 90% of software modernization efforts will use AI-augmented tools, up from less than 15% today. Even more compelling, GenAI will reduce modernization labor costs by 50% compared to 2025 levels.

These projections confirm what Devsu has seen firsthand with VelX: when AI and human expertise collaborate, modernization becomes faster, more scalable, and significantly more strategic.

Breaking the Iron Triangle: Cost, Quality, and Time

The traditional “iron triangle” of modernization, balancing speed, cost, and quality, has long constrained organizations. AI-augmented code modernization tools are changing that equation by automating repetitive tasks, improving code quality, and maintaining compliance in real time.

Gartner identifies four major dimensions where these tools deliver measurable value:

1. Cost of Change: Automated code analysis, refactoring, and translation dramatically reduce time-to-value. AI can analyze millions of lines of code, identify technical debt, and suggest optimal modernization paths.
2. Optimized Deployment and Maintenance: Continuous security scanning and automated compliance enforcement ensure systems stay secure and audit-ready.
3. Agility and Developer Experience: By eliminating repetitive work, developers can focus on innovation instead of legacy cleanup.
4. Intelligent Portfolio Investment: Predictive analytics help leaders prioritize which applications to modernize first, based on complexity, risk, and ROI.

For Devsu, these principles directly shaped VelX’s architecture, designed not as a tool, but as a modernization intelligence layer that continuously learns from real engineering data.

How AI Is Redefining Each Stage of Modernization

Gartner breaks the modernization journey into three phases. Discover, Design, and Deliver, each now augmented by AI.

1. Discover: Understanding the Legacy Landscape

AI automatically inventories legacy assets, maps dependencies, and scores code complexity. VelX, for example, ingests existing software assets and generates a visual graph comparing the current architecture to an ideal target state. This allows teams to identify hidden dependencies and quantify modernization impact before writing a single line of code.

2. Design: Planning for Impact

With predictive analytics, teams can estimate modernization effort, forecast ROI, and create intelligent modernization roadmaps. AI-powered impact analysis ensures that every architectural decision aligns with both business and technical goals.

3. Deliver: Transforming with Confidence

This is where GenAI truly shines. Automated code translation, test generation, and performance optimization enable faster migrations with lower risk. VelX uses built-in quality gates and regression checks to validate transformations, ensuring that modernization never compromises performance or compliance.

Why Human Oversight Still Matters

While the potential is vast, Gartner’s analysis is clear: AI doesn’t replace developers, it empowers them.

Modernization remains a complex human-in-the-loop (HiTL) process. Organizations must maintain governance, validate AI-generated code, and retain institutional knowledge. Without careful oversight, risks like skill erosion, inaccurate transformations, or loss of context can surface.

Devsu’s VelX addresses these concerns by embedding human validation checkpoints throughout the modernization lifecycle. Every AI-generated recommendation is reviewed and approved by engineers, ensuring accountability and traceability.

This “AI-plus-human” philosophy aligns with Gartner’s recommendation that leaders “develop an implementation plan that includes a human in the loop to maintain control, ensure quality, validate complex logic, and retain accountability.”

Risks and How to Manage Them

AI-driven modernization isn’t without challenges. Gartner highlights four primary risk categories:

1. Organizational Risks: Overreliance on automation can lead to developer skill erosion. Devsu mitigates this by using VelX to enhance team expertise rather than replace it.
2. Knowledge Risks: AI may overlook undocumented business rules. VelX solves this through NLP-based knowledge extraction that captures and preserves institutional logic.
3. Technology Risks: Inaccurate transformations or hallucinated code can occur. VelX reduces these through real-time validation and explainable AI outputs.
4. Process Risks: Integrating AI into CI/CD pipelines can introduce complexity. VelX’s modular architecture allows seamless integration without disrupting existing workflows.

In short, effective modernization requires AI governance, balancing automation with compliance, privacy, and human review. Devsu’s approach prioritizes responsible AI use and continuous validation.

From Strategy to Execution: What Leaders Should Do Next

Gartner provides several recommendations that closely mirror Devsu’s modernization framework:

• Start with a clear modernization strategy: Blend AI-assisted portfolio analysis with target-state architecture.
• Run pilot projects: Begin with a low-risk application to validate the model, measure productivity, and refine processes.
• Enhance testing with AI: Auto-generate unit, integration, and regression tests for comprehensive coverage.
• Automate ongoing maintenance: Use AI to monitor code health and technical debt continuously.
• Track success indicators: Measure both technical metrics (test coverage, defect density) and business outcomes (cost savings, time-to-market).

Devsu’s VelX platform operationalizes these principles, offering an end-to-end modernization framework built around continuous improvement and measurable ROI.

What Makes Devsu’s VelX Different

As one of the vendors recognized by Gartner, Devsu stands out for transforming modernization into a strategic enabler rather than a cost center.

VelX integrates Generative AI, code graphing, and human oversight to create a hybrid model that’s accurate, transparent, and business-aligned. It doesn’t just refactor legacy code, it translates enterprise complexity into actionable modernization intelligence.

Among its standout capabilities:

• Dynamic Application Graphing: Real-time visualization of legacy dependencies and architecture gaps.
• AI-Generated Documentation: Converts undocumented code into structured, human-readable documentation.
• Smart Impact Analysis: Quantifies modernization cost, effort, and potential disruption.
• Quality Validation Layer: Enforces compliance, security, and testing checkpoints at every stage.

With VelX, organizations can transform legacy systems at scale, without losing control, knowledge, or quality.

The Bigger Picture: Modernization as a Business Imperative

Beyond cost savings, AI-augmented modernization reshapes how enterprises think about software longevity.

Legacy systems are no longer “technical debt” to eliminate; they’re assets to evolve. By merging AI intelligence with human creativity, companies can reimagine their core applications as adaptable platforms for growth.

According to Gartner’s 2025 CIO and Technology Executive Survey, modernization is now the #2 priority for technology leaders globally, second only to cybersecurity. Those who modernize intelligently, using AI-assisted tools with strong governance, will be the ones setting the innovation pace through 2030 and beyond.

Looking Ahead: The Future Is Hybrid Intelligence

The next evolution of modernization will rely on collaborative intelligence, AI accelerating discovery, humans ensuring judgment, and continuous feedback loops driving improvement.

At Devsu, this is exactly what VelX embodies: a future-ready approach that blends AI-powered speed with human-driven precision.

Gartner’s recognition validates this trajectory and signals a broader market shift toward platforms that unite automation, explainability, and engineering excellence.

Conclusion

Being featured as a representative vendor by Gartner is more than a milestone for Devsu—it’s a testament to a shared vision with enterprise leaders worldwide: that modernization is not just about rewriting code, but about reshaping the future of how organizations build, evolve, and deliver software.

The modernization revolution has begun, and it’s powered by AI, guided by humans, and accelerated by innovation.

To see how this transformation looks in practice, read our case study on how a leading Latin American bank leveraged VelX to modernize its internal systems, optimize operations, and deliver better outcomes for its clients.