How AI Is Reskilling Legacy Developers
An Australian Taxation Office developer with a background in COBOL recently won an internal . Net hackathon by leveraging GitHub Copilot, surprising colleagues and earning praise from their chief information officer. The event took place in September 2026 as part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to modernize legacy systems and build AI fluency across teams. The win highlighted how AI tools can bridge skill gaps and accelerate learning, even for developers working primarily with older programming languages.
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Can AI Tools Replace Traditional Training?
The hackathon win reflects a broader strategy within the Australian Taxation Office to upskill staff entrenched in legacy systems like COBOL. Rather than replacing experienced workers, the agency is using AI pair programming tools to help them transition toward cloud-native development. Training sessions now include guided Copilot exercises focused on real-world scenarios, such as refactoring data processing scripts or integrating APIs. Early feedback suggests participants feel more confident tackling unfamiliar codebases and are faster at prototyping solutions. The CIO emphasized that the goal is not to turn COBOL experts into . Net specialists overnight but to build „AI muscle memory” that supports long-term modernization.
While AI assistants like Copilot are accelerating learning curves, officials stress they complement rather than replace structured training. Developers still need foundational knowledge to validate AI-generated code and avoid introducing errors. The Taxation Office pairs hackathon events with mentorship programs where senior staff review AI-assisted work for quality and security. This hybrid approach ensures that innovation does not come at the cost of reliability, especially in systems handling sensitive taxpayer data. Metrics from the pilot show a 30% reduction in time spent on boilerplate coding tasks, allowing developers to focus more on logic and design.
Did the developer use AI to write the entire hackathon project? No, the developer used Copilot for code suggestions and debugging but wrote the core logic and integrated components themselves, guided by their understanding of the problem.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Australian Taxation Office planning to replace COBOL systems soon? No, the agency maintains critical COBOL applications but is using AI-assisted learning to build skills for gradual modernization and integration with newer platforms.
How does the agency ensure AI-generated code meets security standards? All AI-assisted code undergoes peer review and automated security scanning before being considered for internal use, consistent with existing development protocols.
