Gartner® named Mechanical Orchard a 2025 Gartner® Cool Vendor^TM for AI Code Assistants this week.

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At Mechanical Orchard, we’ve approached things differently, from using first principles to applying systems thinking to tough problems. The way we market is no different.

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So when it comes to industry accolades, we skip the pay-to-play awards and advertorials. Because when you're marketing something that genuinely addresses your audience’s urgent and important needs, you don't need to pay someone for an accolade.

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In our opinion, the Gartner Cool Vendor program is one of the vanishingly few industry recognitions that cannot be bought.

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That’s why this recognition feels pretty special to us: it’s selective, and Gartner’s process is rigorous.

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You can read the report here.

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Gartner writes, “Software engineering teams responsible for modernizing mission-critical legacy systems face the daunting task of ensuring seamless operational continuity during transformation.”

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The analysts are spot on; modernizing old systems is hard.  And while the market looks to generative AI as the unlock, few have figured out the hardest part of using it effectively in modernization: trusting AI-generated code. When you work backwards from that core problem statement, it becomes clear that current approaches that focus on translating code fall short.

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Generative AI excels at meeting precise specifications. Our ability to capture the behavior of running systems is what makes our approach to modernization non-disruptive, far less risky, and most importantly, effective. When we’re done rewriting a workload, it’s working, production-ready software that smoothly integrates with parts of the system that haven’t been modernized yet.

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We're working hard to earn the trust of IT leaders. That’s why we’ve recently partnered with Thoughtworks, a global IT consultancy whose roots in agile software practices and test-driven development run deep and strong.

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And we’re just getting started. We believe Gartner’s recognition reinforces our conviction that modernization can—and should—be safe, reliable, and truly transformative. We’re grateful for the acknowledgment; most importantly, we're committed to earning trust not by promising results, but by consistently delivering them.