There’s a particular kind of frustration only enterprise leaders know: staring down systems that helped build an empire – and now threaten to stall its evolution.
When we surveyed 180 enterprise executives about their legacy technology, two things stood out:
- 46% are frustrated by the limitations holding them back
- 38% are still hopeful about what’s possible
But these aren’t opposing factions. There’s an overlap of the same people, sitting at the crossroads and scanning the horizon. Because legacy systems aren't just a pain point – they're packed with potential.
The question isn’t whether to modernize. It's whether you’ll unlock what your competitors could never replicate: the decades of embedded knowledge, business logic, and hard-won insight trapped in your legacy systems.
And that’s where the real edge lives. Not in replacing what came before, but in transforming it. Turning legacy into leverage.
The shift from constraint to catalyst
Every enterprise has legacy systems. But only some are turning them into strategic fuel.
The real threat isn’t cost or complexity. It’s compounding inertia: Your constraints are stacking up, while your competitors surge ahead. And when those advantages are powered by AI-driven acceleration, the gap doesn't just widen, it becomes exponential.
- 75% of leaders say legacy limitations are significantly holding back innovation
But here’s the twist: Your legacy systems aren’t deadweight. They’re stockpiles of institutional memory, buried customer insights, and operational muscle.
The problem isn’t that they’re old. It’s that they’re siloed and sealed shut – trapping the very data that could fuel intelligent automation, autonomous operations, and AI-powered foresight.
If you treat them like relics, you’ll preserve your past.
If you treat them like raw ore, you’ll power your future.
Two roads: Hesitate or leap forward
This is the part where the divide shows up – not in tech maturity, but in mindset.
- 67% of leaders say their transformation efforts are delayed by uncertainty
Most are inching forward: cautious pilots, selective replacements, low-risk gains. They’re reasonable and pragmatic. But they’re also giving competitors time to build compound advantage.
The outliers? They're not incrementally modernizing. They're strategically rethinking and replacing – redesigning the work itself, not just swapping tools.
They’ve realized something essential: Every quarter spent tinkering is a quarter where someone else is redefining the category. And they’re building systems designed for speed, scale, and strategic distance – not just survival.
When legacy becomes your launchpad
Let’s imagine what happens when the transformation is complete – not incrementally patched, but reimagined:
- Your data flows freely into AI agents that can reason, predict, and act.
- Intelligent automation replaces friction. Human talent focuses on exception, not repetition.
- Your systems don’t just support the business – they anticipate it.
- Innovation compounds. Cost doesn’t.
This is the autonomous enterprise. And the truth is: the most defensible advantage you can create is one your competitors can’t copy. Your legacy systems hold that edge – if you know how to mine them.
Because when AI agents paired with intelligent automation transform your legacy tech into a continuously learning, self-improving operation, you're not just modernizing. You're building an enterprise that operates with increasing autonomy – making decisions, optimizing processes, and adapting to change without constant human intervention. That's the endgame.
The catalyst: What AI makes possible now
It used to take armies of consultants and years of disruption to modernize legacy tech. Not anymore. AI has changed the equation.
With Pega Blueprint™, powered by Pega GenAI™, you can reimagine your most critical processes in minutes. It doesn't just decode your business needs; it transforms them into complete application Blueprints, including case types, case life cycles, data models, and personas. You describe what you need in plain language, and it generates the architectural foundation instantly.
And here's what solves the collaboration gap that typically derails transformation: Using Blueprint, business and IT teams can co-design together before a single line of code is written. That means clarity replaces confusion, alignment replaces delay, and confidence replaces fear.
Blueprint doesn't just make transformation faster. It also:
- Surfaces automation opportunities that would otherwise stay hidden
- Shows multiple solution paths so you can choose the optimal route
- Embeds intelligent automation from the beginning, not bolted on later
- Enables the kind of strategic redesign you need – not incremental patches, but reimagined work
The 67% of leaders who delay transformation out of fear? Blueprint gives them the map. Suddenly, transformation isn't a roadblock – it's a runway.
The research proves it
The data doesn’t lie: The advantage is reaped by those who move decisively.
- 75% are feeling blocked by legacy
- 67% delay transformation out of fear
But the leaders? They’re doing it differently.
They’re not just replacing tech. They’re rewriting how their enterprises operate.
This is your moment to see what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and why waiting is the most expensive strategy of all.
Legacy transformation isn’t a cost center. It’s your next great competitive weapon.
The question isn’t whether to modernize. It’s whether you’ll be first to reforge – or last to realize what your legacy could have become.
Download the full insights report to see how 180 enterprise leaders are confronting the constraints – and discovering what only they can unlock.