Welcome to another edition of Talsco Weekly

• IBM i Brief: 🚀 IBM launches Bob 1.0 for IBM i developers. 💸 IBM i shops, brace for higher Power Systems costs.
• AI: 🔐 IBM just redefined what it means to own your data.
• Career: 📚 Training isn't a reward. It's a responsibility.
• Development: 🔗 IBM i REST APIs built without middleware. ⬆️ AI might increase COBOL and RPG usage, not decrease it.
• Hiring: 💼 Entry-level hiring pivots to AI-enhanced roles.
• Leadership: 💡 Rethink thought leadership for deeper growth.
• Learning: 🤝 The Room Still Matters.
• Modernization: 💡 AI won't replace COBOL modernization expertise.
• Open Source: 🔓 Open source on IBM i isn't optional anymore.

IBM i Brief

🚀 IBM launches Bob 1.0 for IBM i developers

IBM's AI coding co-pilot Bob goes GA March 24, replacing Watsonx Code Assistant for i. Bob uses multi-model approach (Granite, Claude, Llama, Mistral) to understand, document, and generate RPG, COBOL, CL, SQL, Java, and Python code.

Beyond basic coding assistance, Bob understands IBM i security, Db2 performance, and supports Model Context Protocol.

Now for what everyone has been waiting for:

Pricing.

Here is a simple breakdown:

• Free Trial — 30 days, 40 bobcoins, no support
• Pro — $23/mo | 40 bobcoins included
• Pro Plus — $69/mo | 160 bobcoins included
• Ultra — $230/mo | 500 bobcoins included
• Enterprise — $20/user/mo + ~$500/mo pooled bobcoins + SSO, usage reporting, team quotas

The tool is ready. The question is whether your organization is. Thirty days. Zero excuses.

Takeaway: Bobcoins: the only coins IBM wants you mining on their hardware.

💸 IBM i shops, brace for higher Power Systems costs

IBM quietly withdrew a swath of older Power Systems hardware features and replaced multi-year Red Hat subscriptions with pricier annual-only plans.

On top of that, memory price increases are likely imminent — DRAM spot prices have surged dramatically, and analysts project sequential increases of up to 50% through mid-2026.

IBM i shops planning hardware upgrades should act sooner rather than later.

AI

🔐 IBM just redefined what it means to own your data

In January 2026, IBM launched Sovereign Core, the industry's first AI-ready sovereign software.

It gives enterprises and governments complete operational authority over their data, AI workloads, and infrastructure.

Digital sovereignty goes beyond data residency, encompassing who controls the technology environment, how data is governed, and under whose jurisdiction AI models run.

Gartner predicts more than 75% of enterprises will have a digital sovereignty strategy by 2030.

Takeaway:

We've seen this before. When mobile exploded, shadow IT ran wild through the enterprise. AI is doing the same thing. Only faster and deeper.

Enterprise IT isn't just changing tools, it's changing identity.

The organizations that define their digital sovereignty now control their AI future.

The ones that don't will find someone else already made that decision for them.

Career

📚 Training isn't a reward. It's a responsibility.

The RPG developer who stopped learning last year? They're already behind.

It doesn't matter where you are in your career.

Just starting out — the fundamentals are shifting. What you learn next matters more than you think.

Mid-career — your experience is valuable. But experience without current skills is a ceiling. Legacy thinking is the real risk.

Five years from retirement — this is exactly when people coast. Don't. The platform is evolving faster than any point in its history. The AI training wave is here. Ride it.

Every conference. Every webinar. Every course you can get your hands on.

The IBM i market rewards the developer who keeps showing up — and keeps growing.

Development

🔗 IBM i REST APIs built without middleware

Pahlevi Lubis demonstrated building REST APIs directly from RPGLE using IBM Integrated Web Services (IWS), eliminating third-party tools.

The architecture flows from Postman through IBM HTTP Server to IWS, PCML, and RPGLE programs.

Key features:

• PCML embedded during compile
• proper parameter mapping
• JSON-based communication.

This approach enables traditional green screen systems to integrate seamlessly with modern web applications, proving modernization can unlock potential rather than replace systems entirely.

⬆️ AI might increase COBOL and RPG usage, not decrease it

Adam Shedivy challenges the "rewrite everything" narrative following Anthropic's Claude Code announcement.

His counter-intuitive take: AI could make mainframe and IBM i systems more strategically relevant, not less.

The core insight:

The real complexity sits in layers of accumulated business rules, not the language. If models can deeply understand and reason over that code, the language becomes just an abstraction layer.

For decades, mainframe and IBM i systems have been fast because logic and data live together. The overhead of fixed-format RPG or dense COBOL drops when AI can read, generate, and refactor it fluently.

With Model Context Protocol (MCP), agents can already interact directly with existing programs and data — creating a path for augmentation and gradual simplification instead of replacement.

Why this matters:

Teams might lean back into platform-native languages because they're closer to the metal and operational model. Why rush to wrap everything in extra APIs and distributed infrastructure?

Check out the MCP server for IBM i to see how agents are being built for these enterprise platforms today.

Takeaway:

Modernization is about understanding and evolving systems. AI may make these platforms easier to build on, easier to integrate, and more strategically relevant than ever.

Hiring

💼 Entry-level hiring pivots to AI-enhanced roles

While tech lays off, IBM is hiring more.

Not fewer. More.

Tripling entry-level roles — but redesigning them around analysis, judgment, and AI oversight. The routine work? AI does that now.

67% of global CEOs say AI is increasing entry-level headcount. McKinsey and Cognizant are expanding junior ranks too.

The pattern is clear: the jobs aren't disappearing. They're being upgraded.

We've seen this before. Tom Watson hired aggressively during the Depression while everyone else cut. That bet built 45 years of dominance.

IBM is playing the same card.

The question for IBM i shops isn't whether the wave is coming.

It's whether you'll be ready when it does.

Leadership

💡 Rethink thought leadership for deeper growth

Alex Peck challenges the pursuit of being "the expert," arguing that true empowerment comes from thinking partners who challenge your ideas rather than simply providing answers.

A transformation happens when leaders focus on improving your thinking process, not dictating solutions.

Real leadership development requires the right approach, not just the right answer.

Who is your Thinking Partner?

Learning

🤝 The Room Still Matters.

Here's something the Zoom era never fully figured out: you can't accidentally run into someone on a video call.

The WMCPA iCon Conference — the 39th Annual Spring Conference — kicks off next week, and the session grid tells a story worth paying attention to.

Count the sessions.

Across Wednesday and Thursday, there are roughly 7 sessions directly touching AI (Aaron Magid's AI from Zero to RPG Hero, Adam Shedivy's IBM i as the agentic-native enterprise OS, Build an Agent from Scratch, AI-Powered Productivity, and more). Compare that to 10+ RPG-focused sessions, and a robust security track running parallel — covering ransomware, malware, MFA, and encryption.

The platform isn't standing still. Neither is the threat landscape.

The keynote — Steve Will's IBM i in 2026: Strategy & Roadmap in the Era of AI — anchors Wednesday afternoon. That's not a coincidence.

It's a signal.

And the broader conference world is paying attention too.

Nearly 78% of B2B attendees say in-person conferences are the best format for networking.

About 70% of attendees view in-person events as the best way to access technical training and education.

The room still matters because the room is where the real conversations happen — the hallway track, the roundtable, the "hey, we're dealing with the same thing" moment that no webinar has ever replicated.

Tuesday night's Experts Roundtable alone — Steve Will, Tim Rowe, Adam Shedivy, Alan Seiden, and others — is worth the trip alone.

This is your community.

It’s time to show up.

Modernization

💡 AI won't replace COBOL modernization expertise

The overnight surge of ("COBOL modernization experts" OR “IBM i modernization experts”) claiming AI can simply translate legacy code is a half truth.

A half truth in that while AI can assist with modernizing RPG or COBOL code, real modernization is about:

data architecture redesign, transaction integrity, regulatory compliance, and system-level engineering.

The real work involves accountability, risk management, and non-functional requirements baked into platforms, not just syntax translation.

Takeaway:

The best way to look at AI is that it is a tool that can speed up certain tasks in modernization efforts, but it does not replace the need for “system thinkers”, that is those who understand the interconnectedness of systems, platforms and business knowledge that has spanned 10, 20 or 30 years.

Open Source

🔓 Open source on IBM i isn't optional anymore

The platform has always been closed by reputation. Proprietary. Insular. A world unto itself.

That was never entirely true. And today, it's less true than ever.

Python. Node.js. Git. They all run natively on IBM i. The wall between the IBM i world and the broader development ecosystem has been coming down for years — and the pace is accelerating.

Git matters most. Not because it's trendy. Because it's the universal language of modern software teams. More IBM i organizations are choosing to incorporate Git into their DevOps stack and tools now exist to bridge the gap between classic PDM workflows and full Git integration.

We've covered GitHub in under an hour — no command line required. And why agentic coding needs DevOps foundations first.

The IBM i developer who engages with open source speaks two languages.

That's a competitive advantage.

Don't leave it on the table.

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