BMC Survey shows high confidence in mainframe technology and AI adoption

The 20th annual BMC Mainframe Survey reveals a significant long-term confidence in mainframe technology, with 97 percent of respondents believing it will remain a vital platform or attract new workloads. This represents the highest level of confidence in the survey’s history. The workforce is also undergoing a demographic shift, as Millennials and Gen Z now comprise 66 percent of mainframe professionals.

While adoption of modern practices is increasing—with DevOps usage at 67 percent and AIOps at 72 percent—the integration of artificial intelligence remains cautious. Although 94 percent of enterprises support AI on the mainframe, there is a notable trust gap regarding autonomy. For instance, while 40 percent are comfortable with AI recommending code management actions, only 23 percent would permit it to execute them independently.

Modernization efforts are also evident in programming trends, as Java has become one of the four most used languages on the platform, used by 60 percent of respondents. Additionally, 72 percent of organizations report increasing their mainframe capacity to accommodate growing workloads.