Legacy modernization is a competitiveness issue, and CIOs must own the fix

CIOs are not short on AI ambition, but legacy technology is quietly capping their AI agenda and influence. Although AI is forcing them to rearchitect for scale, it also provides the tools to do it. Generative and agentic AI are doing more than raising expectations. They’re unlocking new ways to compress discovery, automate refactoring, and accelerate delivery across the software life cycle. AI is enabling the pivot away from modernization projects to platforms, allowing CIOs to adopt a Services-as-Software approach, transforming modernization from an effort into an asset.

Our survey of 505 Global 2000 (G2000) organizations revealed that 80% remain stuck in pilot mode because legacy systems, brittle architectures, and siloed operating models are silently dragging them down. Another study of 608 G2000 organizations showed that despite decades of “modernization,” approximately 74% of IT budgets are spent on keeping legacy alive rather than building what’s next. This is the moment to break the cycle of effort-heavy change, but you can’t do so without first paying off decades of accumulated technological and operational debt.

When your systems can’t support autonomous decision making, rapid experimentation, or integrated data flows, no amount of algorithmic magic will get you to scale. Competitiveness depends on how fast and continuously you can evolve the core.

Wipro Intelligence and its constituent AI-infused platforms, WEGA and WINGS, illustrate the shift to a platformized modernization approach. They embed generative AI (GenAI) across the software life cycle, enable industrial-scale automation of the software development life cycle (SDLC), and connect modernization directly to business outcomes. They redesign how change flows through your tech estate, and they have AI built in, not bolted on.

AI won’t deliver exponential value if it’s layered on top of legacy. CIOs must accelerate modernization using platforms or risk becoming irrelevant in the AI conversation. Now is the time to rewire operating models, redirect spend, and make platformized change your competitive advantage.

To read the complete report, click the download button below.