Bob - how much is your time worth?

#ibm #java #ai #spring

Bob continues to surprise me.

Recently, I took a moment to observe how the developers I know are using AI in their daily work. It’s not that AI isn’t present. It is. But the way it’s used still feels far from being truly integrated into the development process. And this varies a lot depending on the developer’s seniority. In some cases, this difference can even affect the process of building long-term knowledge, which is a topic worthy of its own post.  But the question that stayed in my mind was another one: why aren’t we using AI in a more fluid, natural way, as part of our workflow?

Are we lacking clarity about what should be delegated? Are we lacking trust?

With that in mind, I decided to take advantage of my early access to Project Bob ( IBM ) and run a more realistic test. I listed a few tasks that I see happening all the time in daily development work, tasks that no one finds particularly difficult, but everyone knows are… exhausting. Lots of small steps, legacy dependencies, old codebases, short but vague specs, branch creation, tiny adjustments, tests, validations… that classic mix of little things that end up consuming a huge amount of time.

I picked a very concrete task: modernizing a #Java 8 application to Java 21 and replacing RestTemplate with RestClient. Nothing epic, nothing extremely complex, just something extremely common in the life of a backend Java developer. And then another question came to mind: why do tasks we understand so well still take so long?

When you look at the modernization, the value is obvious. Java 21 brings better performance, improved security, new language features, and virtual threads. The modern Spring Boot ecosystem requires Jakarta. And RestTemplate, even though it has been our companion for so many years, no longer receives improvements, while RestClient provides a much more intuitive, modern, and fluent API. It’s hard not to want something better.

The example application had the same foundation many systems still have today: Java 8, Spring Boot 2.x, RestTemplate, and javax.validation. After the modernization, it became a current and fully updated application using Java 21, Spring Boot 3.x, RestClient, Jakarta Validation, and virtual threads.

The prompt I used was:

“Update this project from Java 8 to Java 21 and replace all usages of RestTemplate with the new Spring RestClient API. Modernize the code where needed, adjust dependencies, update configuration, and ensure compatibility with Spring Boot’s latest recommended patterns. Provide the updated code examples and explain any breaking changes or required refactoring.”

And here comes the interesting part. This entire task, which normally involves understanding the context, reviewing code, updating dependencies, replacing HTTP calls, testing functionality, reviewing behaviors, fixing warnings, validating the flow, and ensuring compatibility, would easily be estimated at two days of work. I did the whole thing with Bob and, in a demo extremely similar to a real-world scenario, everything was completed in just over four minutes, as you can see in the video.

It’s hard not to stop and think: Does Bob really understand the project?

Based on what I saw, the answer is yes. He understands the context, the application’s style, the dependencies, the patterns used, and the adjustments required. And he does this in a way that doesn’t disrupt the developer, doesn’t break the flow, and doesn’t require you to adapt too much. He simply works with you.

And there’s more. IBM has already reported real productivity gains close to forty-five percent in teams that tested Bob. It helps understand legacy code, accelerates onboarding for new developers, reduces migration effort, supports complex modernization tasks, and removes a huge amount of repetitive work from developers’ shoulders.

So the big question is: why are we still doing all of this manually? How many tasks like this are sitting in your backlog right now? What could you be delivering or learning if part of this work were delegated?

Tools like Bob weren’t created just to speed up delivery. They were created to transform the way we work, freeing time and energy for what actually helps developers evolve: creating, thinking, deciding, exploring, connecting ideas, and delivering real value.

And here’s a fun note: as I’m writing this post, Bob is currently migrating this same application to #Quarkus. So let me ask you this… how much is your time worth?

Oh, and if you enjoyed this content and want to learn more about emerging technologies, here’s an invitation!

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