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Microsoft has been named a Chief within the inaugural 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for AI-Augmented Code Modernization Instruments, which acknowledges software program options that use specialised AI brokers, generative AI, and deterministic evaluation to speed up the transformation of legacy programs. We’re pleased with our placement as a Chief on this first version of the report.
Cloud-native modernization
Microsoft’s conviction from the beginning has been that modernization ought to grow to be one of many quickest, most trusted, and most predictable workflows organizations undertake, and agentic AI is what lastly makes that doable. For years, modernization and innovation competed for a similar finances, and modernization often misplaced. Now the mathematics has modified: modernization is not the tax groups pay earlier than they’ll innovate, it’s the quickest path to it, and the gateway to AI. Eliminating many years of technical debt is what lets groups embed intelligence straight into the confirmed, high-value programs that already run their enterprise. This contemporary basis turns the property they depend upon most into the platform for what comes subsequent.
None of that is on the horizon; it’s occurring now. Modernization is shifting from a multi-year program into one thing groups end in days or perhaps weeks.
In the present day, organizations should not simply shifting to the cloud or lowering technical debt, they’re basically rethinking their purposes, their information, and their infrastructure as a result of they know the choices they make in the present day will decide whether or not they’re AI-ready tomorrow. Each modernization choice is now an AI choice.
Microsoft Azure was constructed for this second. It gives the agentic basis and engine for modernization and AI transformation, together with the governance and belief enterprises require, so modernization lowers safety, information, and operational threat as a lot because it accelerates AI readiness. With agentic tooling and an end-to-end modernization answer powered by GitHub Copilot and Azure Copilot, Microsoft is accelerating the shift, not simply main it.
The issue we got down to remedy
Each enterprise carries code it can not afford to rewrite and can’t afford to disregard. Legacy .NET Framework purposes, Java runtimes, growing older dependencies, and accrued safety debt energy crucial enterprise processes whereas additionally limiting a company’s potential to maneuver ahead. For many years, modernization meant massive groups, months of handbook effort, and an actual threat of breaking what already works. Because of this, it received deferred, repeatedly, whereas technical debt compounded and the gap to the cloud grew.
We really feel Gartner frames the chance completely: software program engineering leaders can meaningfully scale back the time, effort, and threat of modernization by utilizing AI-powered instruments quite than handbook approaches. That distance, between the price of standing nonetheless and the price of shifting, is precisely the place we put our focus. The purpose was by no means to assist groups modernize slightly sooner. It was to basically change the economics of modernization.
The way it works
The engine behind that is GitHub Copilot modernization, an agentic, end-to-end strategy that helps groups assess, improve, and migrate purposes to Azure, with AI dealing with repetitive duties whereas builders stay firmly in management.
We ship it by means of two layers that work collectively. The modernization agent, out there by means of the Modernize CLI, permits architects and software homeowners to orchestrate evaluation, planning, and framework-upgrade automation throughout many purposes directly, then delivers sturdy application-specific plans to builders. Contained in the IDE, builders use GitHub Copilot to execute these plans: upgrading runtimes and frameworks, migrating dependencies to Azure providers, producing infrastructure-as-code, and deploying to manufacturing. Evaluation, planning, transformation, validation, and deployment grow to be one steady, guided journey quite than a dozen disconnected steps.
What we selected to not automate issues simply as a lot, and that’s human judgment. Each advice is clear, each change is reviewable, and each step is validated in opposition to your individual exams and pipelines. That is modernization at machine pace, with the accountability enterprises require.
The place we consider we stand aside
Breadth: Github Copilot modernization spans the languages that really run the enterprise—.NET, Java, C++, and Python—quite than a single stack, so platform groups can standardize on one strategy.
Repeatable experience: Predefined duties seize finest practices for frequent migration patterns, equivalent to adopting managed identities, Azure Key Vault, Blob and File storage, or Microsoft Entra ID. Then customized expertise let groups flip their very own confirmed code adjustments into reusable patterns, making use of them constantly throughout tasks and guaranteeing institutional information stays throughout the group.
Belief in-built: Safety is a part of the workflow, not a part bolted on on the finish. Copilot validates builds, migrates unit exams, scans for CVEs after upgrades, and applies fixes in agent mode—strengthening your safety posture as you modernize, not after.
Enterprise readiness: Modernizing one software is a venture; modernizing a whole property is a enterprise crucial. What makes the distinction at scale is consistency: the patterns that work grow to be reusable duties and expertise any staff can apply once more, so a confirmed strategy spreads throughout the portfolio as an alternative of being reinvented app by app. It’s what turns modernization from a string of one-off wins right into a repeatable, governable follow.
The vacation spot, not simply the journey: Modernization is steady. Functions land on Azure—Azure App Service, Azure Container Apps, Azure Kubernetes Service—and grow to be able to faucet into the total system from silicon to software program. This consists of Microsoft Foundry’s catalog of greater than 11,000 fashions and Microsoft IQ, the enterprise intelligence layer that grounds AI brokers in your group’s personal information and information. Groups don’t simply retire technical debt; they unlock what’s subsequent.
The outcomes that make it actual
The numbers getting back from groups already doing this work are what change the dialog. Prospects utilizing GitHub Copilot modernization capabilities report as much as 70% much less time spent on migration efforts and 50% much less effort to improve purposes. Some have moved greater than 500,000 traces of code in a matter of weeks, work that after would have consumed quarters. Adoption tracks the identical story: greater than 1.4 million builders have already put in the expertise.
GitHub Copilot’s modernization agent considerably saved time on our Java modernization effort from days right down to mere hours at SAP Labs. It runs seamlessly at scale, considerably lowering handbook problems for our builders. The modernization agent is now an important pillar of our modernization effort.
—Dr Richard Cai, Managing Director, SAP Labs China
That is the beginning line
Being named a Chief on this Magic Quadrant is an honor for us, and candidly it’s an obligation. The groups that undertake AI-powered modernization now will spend the subsequent decade constructing on fashionable, safe foundations, within the cloud or hybrid, whereas others are nonetheless untangling the previous. We intend to maintain widening that hole with deeper language and framework protection, richer agentic automation, and an ever-shorter path from legacy code to manufacturing on Azure.
To each buyer and associate who has modernized alongside us, thanks. You formed this, and you’re the purpose for the popularity.
In case you are able to see what is feasible, discover agentic modernization and begin with a single software this week. You may as well learn a complimentary copy of the report back to see why Microsoft was named a Chief.
Gartner ® Magic Quadrant™ for AI-Augmented Code Modernization Instruments, Prasanna Lakshmi Narasimha, Erin Khoo, Deacon D.Ok Wan, Wei Jin, 3 August 2026
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