IT worker in data center, The power of AI on the mainframe | DXC Technology Insights

Growth Drivers | February 5, 2025

The power of AI on the mainframe 

By Chris Drumgoole, EVP, Global Infrastructure Services, DXC Technology

 

Mainframe systems continue to perform some of an enterprise's most essential tasks, from processing millions of customer transactions in seconds to supporting massive workloads without missing a beat.

And they’re finding new life in the artificial intelligence era, moving beyond merely transactional platforms to ones that can extract valuable insights, reduce IT downtime and keep data secure.

Mainframes are known for their high-processing power and ability to handle massive volumes of data efficiently, which makes them ideal for complex AI calculations.

 

Stopping fraud in its tracks

 

In the digital age, banks, retailers and other organizations are increasingly vulnerable to a plethora of fraud schemes that can cause significant financial losses and reputational damage.

But by running AI models directly on the mainframe where the transaction is executed and transactional data resides, the time it takes for data to be processed and made available is minimized. This means that with mainframe AI, patterns can be analyzed in real-time, resulting in the ability to quickly identify—and flag for further investigation—potentially fraudulent activities.

Other activities like automated credit decision-making and loan modification can also be done directly on a mainframe platform, making AI insights and business decisions quicker and easier to assimilate. 

By retrofitting the existing payment authorization component of DXC’s Hogan banking system with IBM's Telum chip, banks can perform mainframe AI fraud detection on 100% of their transactions.

This allows them to take swift action to prevent losses and protect their customers and can result in a $120M yearly savings for an average tier-1 bank.

A mainframe AI assistant by your side

 

In today's fast-paced digital landscape, the complexity of applications paired with a growing talent shortage can leave organizations unprepared for rapid spikes in demand or unable to quickly deliver the innovations their customers care about and need.

Due to their monolithic and complex design, mainframe applications are often hard for developers to understand and maintain.

However, by embedding AI directly into the mainframe development process, organizations can tackle service issues as they happen and allocate resources where they're needed the most. 

This includes helping with understanding existing code bases, automating the restructuring of computer code, and testing the accuracy of a translated piece of code. This means that when code is converted from one programming language to another, the translated version performs the exact same functions and produces the same results as the original code, with no errors or unintended changes in logic or behavior. 

Also, with a dwindling number of developers today able to understand COBOL and other programming languages, new AI on mainframe tools can assist with older coding language work by enabling developers to automate testing processes, build applications faster and improve overall system performance.

This frees up developers to focus on more complex, creative and exploratory tasks.

Addressing the mainframe AI skills gap for the future is critical. DXC's mainframe academy provides engineers with the training they need to help organizations fully capitalize on AI and the potential for mainframe modernization.

 

An operations-minded approach for the AI in mainframe future

 

Even small IT failures can cost millions and result in reputational damage.

But by integrating AI into their mainframe environments, organizations will soon be able to reduce the time it takes to recover from an outage and bring critical systems back online.

Mainframe AI will also be able to predict when an event might occur, allowing for proactive measures to prevent or mitigate its impact on production. 

In this vision of the future, the need for specialized expertise is diminished and a broader range of mainframe developers can be successfully deployed. The result is a more cost-effective approach as the labor pool expands and the pressure to maintain complex systems with a narrow skill set is alleviated.

 

The big picture

Mainframes have long been the silent giants within the technological landscape. And we expect them to continue to evolve by teaming up with AI to make it easier for organizations to extract deeper insights, reduce project complexity, streamline operations and keep fraud away.

The good news is DXC’s consulting, engineering and technical experts are uniquely positioned to help clients put AI and mainframe technologies to work in key industries. We're one of the largest mainframe services providers in the world, managing 1 million MIPS and 10M automation/AI transactions each day.  

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About the author

Chris Drumgoole, managing director for Global Infrastructure Services

Chris Drumgoole is Executive Vice President for Global Infrastructure Services, where he oversees a comprehensive portfolio that includes Modern Workplace, Cloud and Infrastructure and Security services.