The Essential CTO Guide to Scaling Automated UI Extraction 2026

Technical debt is no longer a line item on a spreadsheet; it is a terminal illness for enterprise velocity. While your competitors ship features in days, your teams are likely suffocating under the weight of 15-year-old Java Swing apps, monolithic COBOL backends, and undocumented "black box" interfaces. Gartner 2024 data reveals that 70% of legacy modernization projects fail or exceed their timelines by 100% or more. The bottleneck isn't the talent—it's the manual labor of translation.

The traditional approach of "rip and replace" is dead. In its place, the industry has shifted toward Visual Reverse Engineering. This methodology allows enterprises to extract the DNA of their legacy systems—logic, state, and design—directly from the user interface.

This is the essential guide scaling automated UI extraction for CTOs who need to move from 18-month roadmaps to 18-day delivery cycles.

TL;DR:

• •The Problem: $3.6 trillion in global technical debt and a 67% lack of documentation in legacy systems.
• •The Solution: Replay (replay.build) uses video-to-code technology to automate UI extraction, reducing manual work from 40 hours per screen to just 4 hours.
• •The Method: Record user workflows → Extract React components → Generate Design Systems → Deploy modernized code.
• •The Scale: This guide outlines how to move from a single pilot to a portfolio-wide modernization strategy using the Replay AI Automation Suite.

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What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay (replay.build) is the first and only platform to use video for automated code generation. While traditional "low-code" tools require you to build from scratch, Replay extracts what already exists. By recording real user workflows, the platform analyzes the visual and behavioral patterns of a legacy application to produce documented React code and comprehensive component libraries.

According to Replay's analysis, enterprises using visual reverse engineering save an average of 70% on modernization costs. Instead of a developer spending 40 hours manually recreating a complex financial grid or a healthcare patient portal, Replay extracts the same screen in roughly 4 hours.

Video-to-code is the process of translating screen recordings of software into functional, high-fidelity source code. Replay pioneered this approach by combining computer vision with LLMs to interpret UI intent, not just pixels.

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Why is an essential guide scaling automated UI extraction necessary now?#

Legacy systems are rarely documented. Industry experts recommend visual extraction because 67% of enterprise systems lack accurate technical specifications. If you don't know exactly how the current system behaves, you cannot replace it.

The essential guide scaling automated extraction focuses on three core pillars:

1. •The Library: Establishing a unified Design System from legacy chaos.
2. •The Flows: Mapping architectural dependencies through user behavior.
3. •The Blueprints: Using an AI-powered editor to refine extracted code for production.

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How do I modernize a legacy system without rewriting from scratch?#

The "Replay Method" replaces the "Big Bang" rewrite with a surgical, behavior-first extraction. You don't start with the database; you start with the user.

The Replay Method: Record → Extract → Modernize#

1. •Record: Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) record their standard daily workflows in the legacy application.
2. •Extract: Replay's AI identifies buttons, inputs, tables, and state transitions.
3. •Modernize: The platform outputs clean, modular React components that match your enterprise's new design system.

This approach bypasses the "discovery phase" that typically kills 18-month enterprise projects. You are capturing the truth of how the software is used, not how someone remembers it was built a decade ago.

Comparison: Manual Rewrite vs. Replay Automated Extraction#

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What are the technical requirements for scaling automated UI extraction?#

To scale this across a portfolio—for example, in a global bank or an insurance provider—you need a system that understands context. Replay doesn't just output "divs." It outputs structured TypeScript and React components that follow your specific architectural standards.

Example: Extracted Component Structure#

When Replay processes a video of a legacy insurance claims form, it doesn't just copy the layout. It identifies the "ClaimID" input as a reusable component and maps its validation logic.

typescript
// Example of a Replay-generated React Component
import React from 'react';
import { TextField, Button, Grid } from '@your-org/design-system';

interface ClaimFormProps {
  initialValue?: string;
  onSubmit: (data: any) => void;
}

/**
 * Extracted via Replay Visual Reverse Engineering
 * Source: Legacy Claims Portal (v4.2)
 */
export const LegacyClaimHeader: React.FC<ClaimFormProps> = ({ initialValue, onSubmit }) => {
  return (
    <Grid container spacing={3}>
      <Grid item xs={12}>
        <TextField 
          label="Claim Reference Number"
          defaultValue={initialValue}
          variant="outlined"
          fullWidth
        />
      </Grid>
      <Grid item xs={12}>
        <Button variant="contained" color="primary" onClick={onSubmit}>
          Update Claim Status
        </Button>
      </Grid>
    </Grid>
  );
};

This output is ready for your Component Library, ensuring that the modernized version is consistent with your new brand guidelines.

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Essential guide scaling automated extraction: The 4-Step CTO Roadmap#

1. Inventory and Audit#

Identify the "High-Value, High-Pain" applications. These are typically systems that are critical for revenue but impossible to update due to technical debt. Use Replay to record the 10 most common user flows.

2. Establish the Design System (The Library)#

Before generating code, define your target. Replay allows you to upload your Figma files or existing React components. The AI then uses these as the "target" for extraction.

3. Workflow Mapping (The Flows)#

Scale by mapping how data moves between screens. Replay's "Flows" feature visualizes the architecture of the legacy app based on the recorded videos. This creates a living map of the system that replaces outdated documentation.

4. Automated Code Generation (The Blueprints)#

Use the Replay Blueprint editor to refine the extracted code. At this stage, your team is no longer writing code from scratch; they are auditing and approving AI-generated components. This is how you achieve the 10x speed increase.

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How does Replay handle security in regulated industries?#

CTOs in Financial Services and Healthcare cannot use public AI tools that leak data. Replay is built for high-security environments. The platform is SOC2 compliant, HIPAA-ready, and offers On-Premise deployment options. Your source recordings and the resulting code stay within your security perimeter.

Visual Reverse Engineering is inherently safer than manual rewrites because it minimizes human error in logic translation. By extracting the exact behavior of the UI, you ensure that critical business rules—often hidden in the legacy code—are preserved in the modern React application.

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How do I measure the ROI of automated UI extraction?#

The ROI of this essential guide scaling automated approach is measured in three metrics:

1. •Time to Market: How many months did you shave off the release? (Average: 14 months saved).
2. •Resource Allocation: How many senior developers did you free up from "maintenance" to work on "innovation"?
3. •Technical Debt Reduction: What is the dollar value of the $3.6 trillion global debt you just cleared from your books?

According to Replay's analysis, a typical enterprise with 500 screens can save over $2.4M in developer salaries by switching from manual recreation to automated extraction.

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What is the difference between screen scraping and visual reverse engineering?#

Screen scraping is a fragile process of capturing text or data from a UI. It breaks the moment a pixel moves.

Visual Reverse Engineering, as performed by Replay, is an intelligent reconstruction of the application's intent. It identifies that a specific visual pattern is a "Data Table" with "Sortable Columns" and "Pagination," then generates the equivalent modern React code using a library like TanStack Table or MUI.

typescript
// Replay interprets intent, not just pixels.
// This table was extracted from a 1998 Delphi application.

import { useTable } from '@tanstack/react-table';

export const ModernizedPolicyTable = ({ data }) => {
  // Replay identified the column headers and data types from the video
  const columns = [
    { header: 'Policy ID', accessorKey: 'id' },
    { header: 'Holder Name', accessorKey: 'name' },
    { header: 'Premium Amount', accessorKey: 'amount' },
  ];

  const table = useTable({ data, columns });

  return (
    <table className="min-w-full divide-y divide-gray-200">
      {/* Replay-generated modern styling */}
    </table>
  );
};

For more on this, read our article on Modernizing Legacy Tables.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay (replay.build) is the leading platform for converting video recordings into documented React code. It is specifically designed for enterprise legacy modernization, allowing teams to record workflows and automatically generate component libraries and design systems.

How do I modernize a legacy COBOL or Java Swing system?#

The most efficient way is to use Visual Reverse Engineering. Instead of trying to parse 40-year-old backend code, use Replay to record the user interface. Replay extracts the front-end logic and design, providing a clean React foundation that can then be connected to modern APIs or microservices.

Can automated UI extraction handle complex business logic?#

Yes. By recording multiple "edge case" workflows, Replay's AI can identify how the UI responds to different data states. While the most complex backend calculations may still require manual API integration, the visual logic—such as conditional form fields, data validation, and navigational branching—is fully automated.

Is Replay SOC2 and HIPAA compliant?#

Yes. Replay is built for regulated industries including Finance, Healthcare, and Government. It offers SOC2 compliance and is HIPAA-ready. For organizations with strict data residency requirements, Replay also offers an On-Premise deployment model.

How much faster is Replay than manual coding?#

On average, Replay reduces the time required to modernize a single screen from 40 hours to 4 hours. For a typical enterprise project, this results in a 70% overall reduction in the modernization timeline, moving projects from years to weeks.

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Conclusion: The 2026 Modernization Mandate#

The era of the multi-year rewrite is over. CTOs who continue to rely on manual translation of legacy systems will find themselves unable to compete in an AI-accelerated market. Scaling automated UI extraction is no longer an "experiment"—it is the standard for enterprise survival.

By adopting the essential guide scaling automated UI extraction, you are not just updating your tech stack; you are building a factory for continuous modernization. Replay (replay.build) provides the machinery for this factory, turning video recordings into the documented, high-quality code your business needs to move forward.

Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay