IBM Announces AI Development Partner IBM Bob

This tool generates focused agents and sub-agents to execute specific tasks. Each agent possesses its own context, tools, and skills, enabling them to work in parallel in the background.

It can be used outside of integrated development environments (IDEs). According to IBM, the "Bob Shell" allows for the scripting of iterative tasks and integration into CI/CD pipelines.

Additionally, as enterprise-grade features, it includes workflows for upgrading Java applications to the latest versions and providing development support for mainframes and IBM i.

IBM stated that "Bobalytics," an analytical feature, allows users to track agent adoption, business value, and cost optimization.

In a practical case study, it was reported that development speed improved by approximately 90% during the modernization of a codebase from Java 11 to Java 25.