Rocket Software acquires Geniez AI to boost mainframe agentic AI
Rocket Software has acquired Geniez AI, a generative AI startup that builds AI agents capable of monitoring, diagnosing, and executing workflows directly on mainframe systems using natural language. The Waltham, Massachusetts-based acquirer said the deal will accelerate development of Rocket EVA, its agentic AI platform for core systems, and will bring Geniez AI's engineering team in-house.
Financial terms were not disclosed. Rocket Software is privately held and backed by Bain Capital Private Equity, and the company has not indicated whether Geniez AI was a venture-backed startup or at what stage.
The deal
Gil Peleg, CEO and co-founder of Geniez AI, said the company was founded on the premise that generative AI can fundamentally change how enterprises understand and operate mainframe environments. "Joining Rocket gives us the scale, customer reach, and deep mainframe expertise to bring that vision to more organisations and help shape the next era of intelligent, mission-critical operations," Peleg said.
Milan Shetti, president and CEO of Rocket Software, framed the acquisition as a continuation of the company's broader strategy to move customers from manual, expertise-intensive mainframe operations towards AI-assisted modernisation. The company serves more than 13,500 customers globally, with over 850 partners and approximately 3,000 employees across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Rocket said the integration of Geniez AI's team is intended to close the growing mainframe skills gap, a concern across the industry as experienced COBOL and z/OS practitioners retire and institutional knowledge becomes harder to transfer. The EVA platform is positioned by the company as a vehicle for encoding that knowledge into AI agents that can surface insights and automate workflows under human governance.
Market context
Mainframe modernisation is a segment with considerable commercial inertia. IBM's Z-series platforms still underpin a significant share of global banking, insurance and government transaction processing, and vendors from Broadcom to Micro Focus (now OpenText) have built substantial businesses serving that installed base. Rocket Software sits alongside these players, targeting customers who want to extend the life and capability of their existing core systems rather than undertake wholesale migration to cloud-native architectures.
The move to embed agentic AI into mainframe operations reflects a broader industry pattern: rather than positioning AI as a replacement for legacy infrastructure, vendors are increasingly framing it as an operational layer on top of those systems. Competitors including IBM itself, with its watsonx.ai offerings, and a number of specialist startups are pursuing similar approaches. The mainframe AI category remains early, and the market lacks established benchmarks for what constitutes effective agentic performance on z/OS workloads.
Regulatory and governance considerations
Enterprises deploying AI agents on mainframes are subject to heightened scrutiny, particularly in regulated sectors such as financial services and healthcare where those systems process sensitive transactional data. Frameworks including DORA in the EU and evolving guidance from the UK's Financial Conduct Authority on operational resilience will require organisations to demonstrate clear human oversight and auditability of any automated workflows touching critical systems. Rocket's emphasis on governance and control in its release language suggests the company is aware of this compliance environment, though it has not yet detailed the specific audit or explainability features within EVA that would satisfy regulatory requirements.
The acquisition strengthens Rocket Software's technical headcount at a time when AI and mainframe talent is in short supply, and gives the company a proprietary capability that is difficult for customers to replicate independently. How quickly Geniez AI's technology is integrated into generally available EVA features will be the near-term measure of whether the deal delivers on its stated roadmap.