Cognizant and Microsoft Partner to Drive Enterprise Gen AI

Generative AI (Gen AI) is continuing to transform business operations and enhance employee experiences in organisations around the world, continuing to open up new possibilities for efficiency and growth.

With Gen AI bringing innovation, efficiency and growth, Cognizant and Microsoft have announced an expansion of their partnership to transform enterprise business operations, enhance employee experiences and accelerate cross-industry innovation. 

With AI projected to inject US$1tn into the US GDP over the next decade, the two companies have announced plans to create and deliver industry-specific solutions for their customers using Copilot Studio, Microsoft’s platform that enables users to leverage Gen AI LLMs, enterprise data and business applications to create their own tailored Copilots.

“Generative AI can be a game-changer for virtually every business in every industry, opening up new possibilities for innovation, efficiency and growth,” said Ravi Kumar S, CEO of Cognizant. “That’s why we are investing US$1bn in generative AI over the next three years and leading the development of new research to explore its potential for our clients, their employees and end customers. We’re committed to helping them harness the power of generative AI at scale, and Microsoft Copilot is a proven tool that can bring transformative gains, unlocking talent and potential in ways we can only imagine.”

Cognizant and Microsoft: Delivering enterprise innovation with Gen AI

The partnership between Cognizant, a leader in digital transformation services, and  Microsoft, one of the leading companies in Gen AI today, has the potential to deliver substantial innovation for enterprise customers. 

According to an announcement, the partnership also has the potential to significantly accelerate AI adoption and innovation in India – with AI expected to add US$450-500bn to India's GDP by 2025, accounting for 10% of the country's US$5tn GDP target.

Cognizant has made a significant investment in Microsoft's Copilot technology, purchasing 25,000 seats of M365 Copilot for its associates. Additionally, the company has acquired 500 Sales Copilot seats and 500 Services Copilot seats to boost productivity, streamline workflows, and enhance customer experiences. This partnership extends beyond Cognizant's internal operations, as the company plans to deploy M365 Copilot to users within its global client base of 500 companies spanning 11 industries. Furthermore, Cognizant's Synapse skilling program has already trained 35,000 developers in the use of Github Copilot, with an additional 40,000 developers slated to receive training, underscoring the company's commitment to leveraging cutting-edge AI technologies.

“Generative AI is transforming business operations, and we are thrilled that Cognizant is leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot to enhance employee experiences, and deliver new value for customers,” said Judson Althoff, EVP and Chief Commercial Officer at Microsoft. ” In collaboration with Microsoft, Cognizant will use their transformative capabilities and industry expertise to drive enterprise AI adoption, for a million customers.”

Gen AI driving transformation across industries

A core objective of the Microsoft-Cognizant partnership is driving industry-specific transformation, aimed at helping businesses reimagine operations in sectors that have seen minimal disruption for decades. Recent research by Cognizant and Oxford Economics revealed that Gen AI could automate up to one-third of tasks for emergency physicians, potentially addressing staffing challenges, improving service quality and allowing doctors to focus on patients' health. Cognizant is already leveraging Microsoft's Gen AI technology with its TriZetto platform to help payers and providers reduce hidden costs and enable better patient outcomes for millions of Americans.

To capitalise on these opportunities, Cognizant and Microsoft will collaborate to deliver industry-specific solutions, utilising Copilot Studio, a platform that enables users to create and customise their own industry-and-business-function-specific Copilots, harnessing generative AI large language models, business applications and enterprise data. Beyond healthcare, the companies will prioritise applications across industries such as retail and consumer goods, financial services, life sciences, manufacturing, communications and media.

Cognizant's recently announced Advanced AI Lab will support these efforts, focusing on advancing the science and practice of AI through innovation, development of intellectual property, and AI-enablement technologies. Additionally, the company's network of AI Innovation Studios in London, New York, San Francisco, Dallas, and Bengaluru, equipped to showcase Microsoft's generative AI technology, will serve as a forum for clients to co-innovate and build innovative industry solutions.

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