In highly regulated sectors such as financial services, healthcare, and insurance, the modernization of legacy applications is not just a matter of technological advancement—it is a critical business imperative. These industries face unique challenges: stringent compliance requirements, heightened security expectations, and the ever-present need to manage risk. Publicis Sapient’s Sapient AI for Applications and Sapient Slingshot platforms are purpose-built to address these complexities, enabling organizations to modernize with confidence, speed, and measurable impact.
Legacy systems in regulated industries are often deeply entrenched, supporting core business processes and storing sensitive data. Modernization efforts are complicated by:
- Complex compliance mandates (e.g., HIPAA, PCI DSS, SOX, GDPR)
- Security and privacy concerns around sensitive customer and patient data
- Risk of business disruption during migration
- Shortage of talent with expertise in both legacy and modern technologies
- Budgetary and time constraints
Traditional approaches to modernization—manual code migration, documentation, and testing—are slow, error-prone, and costly. They often fail to keep pace with regulatory changes and evolving cyber threats.
Publicis Sapient’s AI-driven platforms transform the modernization journey for regulated industries:
1. Accelerated, Accurate Code Migration
Sapient Slingshot leverages proprietary AI agents and an extensive code library built on over 20 years of domain expertise. The platform can analyze, deconstruct, and translate legacy code (e.g., COBOL to Java) into modern architectures with remarkable speed and precision. The process includes:
- Automated code analysis and logic simplification
- Generation of program flow diagrams and requirements in behavior-driven development (BDD) format
- Creation of design documents (microservices, ER diagrams, sequence diagrams)
- Automated generation of modular code, unit tests, and API specifications
Outcome: Migration cycles are accelerated by 50–70%, with a 3x increase in speed reported in real-world engagements. This means years-long projects can be completed in months or even weeks.
2. Automated Compliance Documentation
Regulatory alignment is built into the DNA of Sapient AI for Applications. The platform integrates with project management tools (such as JIRA and Confluence) to:
- Pull context from existing requirements, regulations, and code
- Automatically generate and update compliance documentation
- Ensure traceability from requirements through to code and test cases
This automation not only reduces the manual burden on compliance teams but also ensures that documentation is always audit-ready and up to date with the latest regulatory changes.
3. Robust Security and Risk Management
Security and privacy are non-negotiable in regulated industries. Sapient Slingshot and Sapient AI for Applications embed security best practices throughout the software development lifecycle:
- Automated code reviews and static analysis to identify vulnerabilities early
- Generation of comprehensive test cases, including for security and privacy controls
- Seamless integration with cloud and on-premise environments, ensuring data protection and compliance with industry standards
- Real-time assistance and documentation to support secure development and deployment
Outcome: Organizations benefit from a 50% reduction in software defects, including those related to security and compliance, and significantly expanded test coverage.
4. Human-in-the-Loop for Regulatory Assurance
While AI accelerates and automates, Publicis Sapient’s approach always keeps human expertise at the center. Domain experts review, enhance, and sign off on requirements, designs, and code, ensuring that every modernization effort meets both business and regulatory expectations.
A leading benefits provider in the healthcare sector partnered with Publicis Sapient to modernize legacy mainframe applications. By leveraging private AI models and iterative development, the organization achieved:
- 3x faster migration
- Functional specifications that improved traceability and quality
- Code that is easier to maintain and enhance in a modern tech stack
Publicis Sapient brings together deep industry knowledge, digital transformation expertise, and leadership in generative AI. Our end-to-end capabilities—from strategy to implementation—are trusted by global organizations to deliver:
- Enterprise-scale AI solutions tailored for regulated environments
- Partnerships with leading cloud providers to ensure secure, compliant modernization
- A culture of ethical, responsible AI that puts compliance and security first
Modernizing legacy systems in regulated industries no longer needs to be a high-risk, high-cost endeavor. With Sapient AI for Applications and Sapient Slingshot, Publicis Sapient empowers organizations to accelerate transformation, automate compliance, and strengthen security—while maintaining unwavering regulatory alignment.
Connect with our experts to see how AI-driven modernization can future-proof your business and unlock new value in even the most regulated environments.