{"slug": "how-some-companies-are-using-ai-to-clear-technical-debt", "title": "How some companies are using AI to clear technical debt", "summary": "AI coding assistants could help large organizations automate refactoring of legacy code to clear technical debt, a decades-old problem that leaves custom software vulnerable to security breaches and incompatible with new hardware, according to The Stack. The publication notes that organizations often cannot justify the costs of updating old code, and junior engineers prefer working on new projects over maintaining software infrastructure.", "body_md": "[software development](/tag/software-development/)\n\nAI may be the secret weapon for automating refactoring code to clear technical debt – a problem that goes back decades.\n\nLarge organisations have lots of custom software built around code written years ago that still supports the business and its many needs. But as that code ages, and as libraries and other key components are updated, it becomes an awkward relic: unable to work with new hardware and open to security breaches.\n\nTech debt refers to the future cost of sloppy software design, quick fixes to meet business needs, or an overreliance on old code. Organisations often can’t justify the costs in time and personnel needed to bring that software up to date.\n\nOld code may have been developed by software engineers who are no longer in the team or at the company. New staff aren’t motivated to work on it, either. Junior engineers want to be working on high-profile new code, not supporting the software infrastructure that underpins those projects.\n\nHowever, AI coding assistants and tools could bridge those gaps and eliminate enormous amounts of technical debt, assuming that the output can be trusted.\n\n## Get the full story: Subscribe for free\n\nJoin peers managing over $100 billion in annual IT spend and subscribe to unlock full access to The Stack’s analysis and events.\n\n[Subscribe now](https://www.thestack.technology/membership/)\n\nAlready a member? [Sign in](https://www.thestack.technology/signin/)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-some-companies-are-using-ai-to-clear-technical-debt", "canonical_source": "https://www.thestack.technology/ai-clear-technical-debt/", "published_at": "2026-07-23 11:22:03+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-23 11:24:17.266396+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "developer-tools"], "entities": ["The Stack"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-some-companies-are-using-ai-to-clear-technical-debt", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-some-companies-are-using-ai-to-clear-technical-debt.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-some-companies-are-using-ai-to-clear-technical-debt.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/how-some-companies-are-using-ai-to-clear-technical-debt.jsonld"}}