Visual Basic 6 Dominates Legacy Modernization Demand, Driving 68% of Inquiries
Event summary
- Visual Basic 6 accounted for 67.6% of legacy modernization inquiries (747 of 1,105 organizations) between August 2025 and August 2026.
- Technologies released before 2000 represented 83% of demand, with the Visual Basic family accounting for 73.4%.
- 58% of demand came from outside the United States, across 120+ countries.
- Microsoft Access inquiries grew 6.3x year over year, while total identified workloads grew 3.3x.
- Median PowerBuilder and Clarion codebases were 8x and more than 10x larger than VB6 codebases, respectively.
The big picture
The report highlights the persistent challenge of legacy software, particularly VB6, which remains a critical modernization priority despite being out of support since 2008. The data underscores the global nature of the problem, with significant demand outside the U.S., and the need for AI modernization solutions to address complex, enterprise-scale systems. The findings suggest that providers like GAPVelocity AI must tailor their offerings to the unique challenges of migrating large, proprietary codebases.
What we're watching
- Market Share Dynamics
- How the dominance of Visual Basic 6 in modernization demand will affect the strategic positioning of AI modernization providers.
- Codebase Complexity
- Whether the larger codebases of PowerBuilder and Clarion will shift focus away from VB6 in the long term.
- Global Demand Trends
- The pace at which non-U.S. markets will drive legacy modernization, particularly in regions with significant VB6 adoption.