PUBLISHED DATE: 2025-11-18 01:54:06

AI Helped a Healthcare Leader Cut Legacy Modernization Costs by 50% | Publicis Sapient

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How a Healthcare Organization Went from COBOL Gridlock to Cloud-Native in Months, Not Years

3x faster migration. 50% cost reduction.
For years, a U.S. healthcare organization attempted to modernize a large number of legacy business applications built on COBOL technology. Using a traditional legacy modernization process, fewer than 10 percent of apps had been converted. These frontend screens ran on outdated code and were difficult to maintain, making it hard to add or update business capabilities.
That’s when Publicis Sapient stepped in. With Sapient Slingshot—our AI-powered modernization platform—we’re helping the organization accelerate migration three times faster and cut costs in half.
Client
Healthcare organization
Services
Strategy & Consulting
Technology & Engineering
Data & Artificial Intelligence
Industry
Healthcare
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The Imperative for Change

The client’s legacy administration system was built on more than 10,000 COBOL green screens—many untouched for decades. Running on mainframes, the system was expensive to maintain and difficult for modern developers to work with. They needed a faster, more predictable way forward.

The Transformative Solution

Publicis Sapient brought in Sapient Slingshot to change the game. Our solution helped cloud-native developers—without COBOL experience—migrate legacy code to a modern microservices architecture.
We used generative AI to produce functional specs, behavior-driven development stories, optimized user interface screens and clean, maintainable code in Java and React. Our engineers then reviewed, refined and validated every output, so speed never came at the cost of quality.
We worked with the business team to validate the modernized application, confirming it retained core functionality while providing a better user experience.
Delivered as a service with outcome-based pricing, the approach gave the client speed, predictability and cost control while building trust in a new way of modernizing.

The Business Impact

The results were transformative: migration is three times faster, modernization costs dropped by 50 percent and spend became predictable with clear accountability. The new system is cloud-native, easier to maintain and ready to scale. Most importantly, the client’s teams can now build without being held back by legacy systems.
Chiraag Shah
Vice President, Healthcare Industry
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