Modern microservices face a common challenge: managing multiple tasks simultaneously without putting too much pressure on the systems that follow. Adjusting traditional thread pools often involves a lot of guesswork, which usually doesn’t hold up in real-world situations. However, with the arrival of virtual threads in Java 21 and the growth of AI-powered engineering tools, we can create smart concurrency adapters that scale in a safe and intelligent way.
This article provides a step-by-step guide to a practical proof-of-concept using Spring Boot that employs AI (OpenAI/Gemini) to assist in runtime concurrency decisions. It also integrates virtual threads and bulkheads to ensure a good balance between throughput and the safety of downstream systems.