This article was originally published on IBM Developer by Sethulekshmi K
Mainframes are known for handling large workloads with high scalability, reliability, and security. They continue to be essential for many industries, including most of the world’s top banks, airlines, and retailers.
Over the past 20 years, Mainframes have evolved from legacy systems to modern platforms. Today, they support containerization, DevOps, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and generative AI. The latest IBM Z processors take this further by enabling fast, low-latency generative AI directly on the Mainframe.
Many companies face a shortage of Mainframe experts. Experienced workers are retiring, new talent is hard to find, and Mainframes require specialized skills. The key question is: how can organizations attract new talent and pass on knowledge before it’s lost?
According to Gartner, using generative AI with Mainframe systems can help address the skills gap. This creates an important opportunity for IBM to offer a solution.
IBM watsonx Assistant for Z is a generative AI tool designed to help solve Mainframe challenges. This article explains what it can do and how it helps.
Simplify Mainframe management with IBM watsonx Assistant for Z
IBM watsonx Assistant for Z is a chatbot designed to make Mainframe tasks easier. It provides expert guidance, automates complex steps, and helps both new and experienced IBM Z users.
The assistant speeds up learning, answers technical questions, and can be customized with your company’s own information.
What makes it different from other Chatbots?
Smarter conversations with AI
watsonx Assistant for Z gives fast, accurate answers by using both IBM Z documentation and your company’s own knowledge. It uses retrieval augmented generation (RAG) to pull information from trusted sources, so responses are reliable and relevant.
The system includes content from over 200 IBM Z products, including IBM Redbooks and technical papers. You can also add your own documents, such as internal guides and best practices, to customize the answers for your team.
The assistant uses the granite-3-8b-instruct language model, which is trained on a large and carefully selected dataset. IBM follows strict rules for data quality, filtering out misleading content to improve accuracy and reduce errors in responses.
Connects with your tools and systems
watsonx Assistant for Z works with many platforms that support Open API, such as Ansible, AIOps tools, z/OS Management Facility (z/OSMF), and ServiceNow. You can follow the assistant’s suggestions and run tasks directly from the chat without needing deep Mainframe knowledge.
Continue reading on IBM Developer to learn more about customizing watsonx Assistant for Z for your team, benefits and use cases, and how IBM’s CIO office used watsonx Assistant for Z to improve Mainframe performance and support new users.
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