News

GitHub Copilot-Powered Modernization Now Available for Java and .NET Legacy Apps

AI agents help automate upgrades, accelerate Azure migrations, and remediate code vulnerabilities across legacy ecosystems.

• By John K. Waters
• November 4, 2025

GitHub has launched a new AI-powered application modernization capability designed to simplify and accelerate upgrades and migrations of legacy .NET and Java applications.

Leveraging GitHub Copilot's intelligence, the system automates substantial parts of the modernization workflow—from initial code analysis to final Azure deployment—while keeping developers in the loop.

This marks a significant step in bringing AI-assisted development to enterprise modernization efforts, targeting aging applications that remain mission-critical but increasingly brittle and expensive to maintain.

AI Agents Take on Modernization Headaches
The new solution features a tightly integrated set of AI agents that can:

• Analyze legacy codebases, identify dependencies, and propose migration paths
• Remediate code issues, such as breaking changes, outdated packages (e.g., NuGet), and build errors
• Detect security vulnerabilities, using CVE databases and best practice templates
• Recommend framework upgrades and cloud services, especially for Azure

Developers using .NET (MVC, console apps, functions, WPF) and Java (across runtime variants) can now access a Copilot-driven workflow that streamlines upgrades, runtime refactoring, and platform transition.

Human-in-the-Loop by Design
Despite the heavy use of automation, GitHub emphasized that developers remain in control. Each recommended change is surfaced for review and approval, ensuring that automated remediations and platform suggestions align with real-world needs.

The Copilot extensions are accessible directly from popular development environments, including Visual Studio Code and IntelliJ IDEA, where developers can initiate, monitor, and refine modernization tasks in context.

Azure in the Loop
For .NET developers targeting Azure, Copilot provides tailored guidance by:

• Scanning applications for cloud-readiness
• Recommending suitable Azure services
• Proposing deployment strategies based on architecture patterns and service dependencies

This Azure-aware integration could significantly shorten the time to cloud migration for organizations modernizing monolithic .NET stacks.

By bringing automation, security scanning, and intelligent planning into the heart of app modernization, GitHub is positioning Copilot as more than just a code assistant—it’s now a transformation partner. As legacy systems continue to present both technical debt and operational risk, AI-backed tooling could become the new standard for modernization-at-scale.