Cognizant puts more than 25,000 staff into new OpenAI delivery group

A delivery group built around a skills gap

Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) argues that access to frontier models is no longer what holds many enterprises back. In its view, the missing piece is skilled professionals who know how to build with those models inside the systems a business depends on.

The company says it has been building that capability internally. More than 21,000 associates have earned 40,000+ OpenAI badges, each awarded for completing learning tracks on OpenAI technologies. The new group adds an organization focused on building and supporting the operation of OpenAI-powered systems for clients.

That work is expected to draw on Cognizant's Frontier workforce model, through which it is developing Frontier Certified Engineers and Frontier Business Operators credentialed directly by frontier-model companies.

Cognizant is one of a select group of Advanced partners in the OpenAI Partner Network. Its Codex hackathons in India and the Americas brought together more than 12,000 participants.

Testing inside Cognizant first

Cognizant says it often tests new approaches in its own business before taking them to clients. Its sales and customer success teams already use a solution built on OpenAI models to find and pursue new opportunities. The company says this means the group's work can start from methods tested at scale inside a global enterprise.

Ravi Kumar S, CEO of Cognizant, said: "We started with our own, and OpenAI is beginning to reshape how we sell." Dali Rajic, Chief Revenue Officer at OpenAI, said Cognizant is "helping more enterprises turn AI into meaningful business impact" by bringing together the 25,000 professionals and putting the technology to work across its own operations.

Three initial focus areas

The group will start with three areas:

• AI-native software engineering with Codex. Codex anchors this area and is designed to support engineers as they write, test and ship new code.
• Application modernization. The group will use Cognizant Application Modernizer, powered by OpenAI models, across the full lifecycle, from reverse engineering legacy mainframe code to generating cloud-native code. Engineers review every consequential decision, backed by Cognizant's experience modernizing mainframe systems for more than 500 clients.
• Agentic customer operations. The group will apply OpenAI models to sales, service and support, drawing on Cognizant's experience using them in its own business.

An early client example and what it means

Cognizant says it is already delivering for clients. At a global biopharmaceutical company, it co-engineered an OpenAI-powered enterprise assistant that brings search, content creation, translation and approvals into one place. According to Cognizant, the assistant has handled more than 5 million conversations and cut content creation time by 60%.

For enterprises, the announcement signals that a large services provider is dedicating a sizeable workforce to OpenAI projects, with certified engineers and tested internal practices as the selling point. The press release does not give pricing, contract terms or a rollout timeline, so how quickly clients will see results from the group remains to be seen.