IBM has announced global availability of IBM Bob, an AI-first development partner for enterprise software teams.
IBM Bob supports the full software development lifecycle (SDLC), from planning and coding to testing, deployment, and modernization, with governance and security controls.
It is designed to speed development while reducing risk as enterprises adopt artificial intelligence (AI) across legacy and hybrid environments.
“Every business is racing to modernize,” said Dinesh Nirmal, senior vice president, IBM Software. “But speed without control and transparency is a liability. IBM Bob is how enterprises can move at AI speed without sacrificing the governance and security needs their businesses require. Bob was engineered by developers inside IBM for the millions like them worldwide, and it is the foundation on which enterprises will become truly AI-first.”
IBM Bob embeds AI across software development roles using persona-based modes, reusable workflows, tool calling, and human-in-the-loop approvals.
Key capabilities include AI-first SDLC orchestration, where agentic AI coordinates work from design to operations, reducing tool fragmentation and delivery delays.
It also targets modernization work, which IBM estimates consumes 60% to 80% of development budgets. In one example, IBM said cloud solutions and consulting services company Blue Pearl reduced a 30-day Java upgrade to three days, saving more than 160 engineering hours.
Security is integrated throughout development, with prompt filtering, sensitive data scanning, real-time policy enforcement, and AI red-teaming.
Audit trails are handled through BobShell, a command-line interface that logs actions for compliance and traceability.
Bob also uses multi-model orchestration, routing tasks across models such as Anthropic Claude, Mistral open-source systems, and IBM Granite based on cost, speed, and accuracy.
“Developers need a system that understands the full context of their work and can act on it,” said Neel Sundaresan, general manager, Automation & AI, IBM Software. “Bob is an agentic platform that embeds an AI partner into every role across the SDLC, from the architect sketching a design to the security engineer reviewing code before it ships.”
IBM said Bob has been used internally since June 2025, starting with 100 developers and scaling to more than 80,000 employees. Users reported an average 45% productivity gain. IBM Instana developers saw a 70% reduction in time on selected tasks, while IBM Maximo teams recorded up to 69% time savings in code generation and refactoring.