NI, a leader in automated test and measurement systems within Emerson’s Test & Measurement business group, applied its innovative approach to modernizing its internal IT architecture. In 2022, NI partnered with Unisys to modernize and migrate 90+ applications to the cloud in just 11 months, earning Unisys the “Partner of the Year” award for 2023. “Our applications aren’t legacy, but the technology and platform they ran on was,” explains Tamas Mile, director of IT, NI. “We needed to move from an outdated on-premises solution to a more dynamic cloud-based environment that could scale with our needs.

Building on this success, NI embarked on a more ambitious project in early 2024. The company identified hundreds of applications across global product teams that required modernization, aiming to significantly reduce technical debt by Q2 2025 without operational disruption. Recognizing that previous methods wouldn’t meet this timeline, NI again partnered with Unisys to develop an AI-based assistant. This tool would accelerate modernization, enhance code quality, improve documentation and empower NI’s product teams to manage the process autonomously. “For our first phase, we didn’t use any AI — it was completely outsourced to Unisys as a project. We handed over the repositories and the code to Unisys, and they came back with a working solution that we deployed,” says Mile. “This time, a new collaboration will occur — among NI, Unisys and AI — and everyone will be highly involved.