Chain of Thought

Using AI to Modernize Your Legacy Applications | MongoDB’s Rachelle Palmer

Mar 12, 2025

43:37

Imagine cutting your legacy code modernization timeline from years to months. It’s no longer science fiction and this week’s guest is here to tell us how.

Rachelle Palmer, Director of Product Management at MongoDB, joins hosts Conor Bronsdon and Atindriyo Sanyal, for a discussion on the groundbreaking ways AI is modernizing legacy applications.

At MongoDB, Rachelle's forward-deployed AI engineering team is tackling the challenge of transforming complex, outdated codebases, freeing developers from technical debt. She details how LLMs are automating tasks like improving documentation, test generation, and even business logic conversion, dramatically reducing modernization timelines from years to months. What once demanded teams of dozens can now be achieved with a small, highly efficient team.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction and Host Welcome

00:58 Challenges in Modernizing Legacy Applications

02:52 Real-World Examples of Code Modernization

04:00 The Role of LLMs in Code Modernization

08:01 Measuring Success in AI-Powered Modernization

12:28 The Future of AI in Engineering

16:17 Evaluating Modernization Success

21:12 Returning to Your Startup Roots

29:07 Forward Deployed AI Engineers

35:36 Importance of Academic Research in AI

42:10 Conclusion and Farewell