For more than three decades, IBM i has reliably sustained some of the world’s most essential enterprise workloads, steadily transforming to support changing business needs. Today, the forces shaping the ecosystem come from both inside and outside the technology itself, influencing how organizations make decisions, where they invest, and how they prepare for the future. In this feature, we have compiled insights from conversations across global industry gatherings, including COMMON Europe Congress, COMMON India, COMMON NAViGATE, COMMON POWERUp, Infor inPOWER, and Trimble Insight to offer a rare glimpse into how the platform is being envisioned for the year ahead.

Tradeshow Turnout: Communities Continue to Show Up at IBM i–Focused Events

Across the events worldwide, we witnessed a diverse mix of attendees representing every corner of the IBM i ecosystem. With an energetic, engaged, and evolving community, it was clear that people still believe in the power and potential of the platform.

• Audience: From administrators, architects, developers, and students to consultants, decision makers, partners, and prospective customers, participants from across the IBM i community showed a highly active interest in the platform.
• Industries: Attendees represented a wide range of sectors, reflecting their continued reliance on IBM i for operational continuity. Manufacturing and supply chain stood out prominently in gatherings where IBM i-based Infor systems and Trimble solutions were the focus, drawing individuals supporting batch production, brokerage, carrier-based, distribution, job-shop, and shipping operations.
• Regions: Representatives from Europe, including the DACH region and Nordic countries, India, and the United States were present at these events, reinforcing that IBM i remains an important platform across multiple global markets.

Industry Insights: Factors Impacting IBM i Decision-Making

Conversations during the events revealed that enterprises relying on IBM i are responding to a range of external and internal forces that influence how they plan to derive sustained value from their existing environments.

• Economic and Political Shifts: Due to fluctuating trade environments and ongoing geopolitical tensions, several decision-makers shared concerns about upcoming IT investments. While many are reassessing their spending priorities, this hesitancy does not highlight a lack of interest in the platform, rather, it reflects a careful, wait-and-see approach to long-term commitments.
• Workforce Dynamics: With a significant portion of experienced IBM i professionals nearing retirement, participants expressed growing anxiety about finding skilled talent and ensuring effective knowledge transfer. Many actively sought guidance on how to maintain, manage, or modernize their systems amid shrinking internal expertise.
• Business Expectations: Despite strong demand for supporting IBM i–based ERP variants such as Infor LX and System21, related services remain scarce. This imbalance shows that demand for sustaining and transforming the platform continues to grow even as resources become stretched.
• Offerings Consolidation: To better meet customer needs, vendors, service providers, and product organizations are exploring partnerships, mergers, and joint go-to-market strategies to offer broader solutions and scalable expertise.

Platform Progressions: Continued Commitment to IBM i

IBM’s actions and announcements across recent industry gatherings make its sustained confidence in the platform’s future abundantly clear. Here’s how the company is continuing to invest deeply in the Power platform and the IBM i ecosystem:

• Release Planning and Regional Importance: For the first time, IBM plans to launch the next major IBM i and Power Systems release in Munich, Germany. Happening around July 2026, this announcement underscores Europe’s rising influence in the IBM i ecosystem and signals continued platform investment at a global scale.
• Long-Term Platform Stability: As the only enterprise platform with a publicly committed 10-year roadmap, IBM i continues to offer businesses the stability and predictability required for mission-critical operations.
• Modern Development Support: With support for AI-enabled tools like Watson Code Assist and Impact Analysis (iA), DevOps workflows, and modern development solutions like Git, VS Code, and SQL, IBM i is making development more approachable for both next-generation and seasoned professionals.
• AI-Powered Modernization: IBM foresees AI as a way to simplify IBM i modernization. Using AI, professionals can understand legacy code and its intent in clear terms, transform traditional RPG code into free-form RPG, and automate documentation. Hence, this advanced technology will act as a powerful medium to bridge decades-old systems with modern development practices.
• AI Adoption Strategies: To make AI consumption more secure, IBM recommended deploying AI models in trusted environments like private, on-premises and off-premises servers. For customers preferring cloud-based, off-premises infrastructure, the organization is offering Power Virtual Server (PowerVS) with secure integration options. Members of the organization further stated that 81% of customers prefer to deploy AI in trusted, internal environments for enhanced control and privacy.

Empowering Entrants: Building the Next Generation of IBM i Professionals

Alongside seasoned experts and long-time professionals in the IBM i community, events revealed a growing presence of students and young developers, a positive sign for the platform’s future. To enhance the enthusiasm of the new generation for IBM i, enterprises, institutions, and user groups are encouraging, mentoring, and training talent through various initiatives.

• IBM i-Focused Events: Through industry events like COMMON, newcomers gain premier educational sessions from industry-leading speakers, engage with a vibrant, knowledgeable community, and explore real-world use cases of IBM i. These gatherings not only provide insights into customer requirements and strategies to set priorities for meeting them but also offer a practical understanding of the platform’s future direction.
• Learning Opportunities: Initiatives like the IBM i Internship Program and Power Skills Academy were largely promoted to help aspiring IT professionals and students develop hands-on skills, gain industry exposure, and strengthen their career pathways. Through practical and structured educational approaches, these programs are bridging academic learning with practical experience and professional exposure, nurturing the next generation of IBM i talent and contributing to addressing the rising skill gaps.
• Complimentary Resources: Free learning materials like A Developer’s Guide to Mastering IBM i were also promoted to help aspirants build foundational knowledge around the platform.
• Career Scope: Organizations relying on IBM i are increasingly seeking professionals with a strong understanding of the platform’s fundamentals. As a result, knowledge of RPG and its modern form can open the door to stable, meaningful career opportunities where these skills are both valued and urgently needed.

Conclusion

Based on our interactions at these events across the globe, we can say that IBM i is alive and active. With strong community participation, sustained investment, and a steadily growing talent pipeline, the platform is well-positioned to support business innovation while maintaining the stability and reliability organizations depend on for the long run.

If you’re planning to prepare your IBM i system for the future or are seeking expert assistance to keep your core systems running, connecting with experienced IBM i consultants can help you establish a clear strategic direction. With deep platform expertise and years of hands-on experience, these professionals help organizations develop actionable roadmaps that drive strategic growth and sustained value.