Cognizant and Microsoft have announced a deepening of their collaboration aimed at distributing Microsoft's advanced generative AI and copilot technologies to millions of Cognizant users. This initiative is set to transform enterprise operations, enhance employee experiences, and foster broad-based innovation across various industries.
"Generative AI can be a game-changer for virtually every business in every industry, opening up new possibilities for innovation, efficiency and growth. That's why we are investing $1 billion 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," said Ravi Kumar S, CEO, Cognizant.
This alliance is poised to deliver significant innovations to business clients, potentially contributing to the estimated $1 trillion that AI could add to the U.S. GDP over the next decade.
Driving transformation across industries
As part of this expanded partnership, Cognizant has acquired 25,000 seats for Microsoft 365 Copilot and additional seats specifically for sales and service functions to improve productivity, streamline operations, and transform customer interactions. Moreover, Cognizant aims to implement Microsoft 365 Copilot for a million users across its global 2000 clients spanning 11 industries.
The partnership is focused on driving transformation in industries that have seen little innovation in recent decades. According to a joint research study by Cognizant and Oxford Economics titled "New Work, New World," generative AI has the potential to automate up to a third of tasks typically performed by emergency physicians, alleviating staffing issues, enhancing service quality, and allowing physicians to concentrate more on patient care.
In addition, generative AI could drastically reduce the time required for procedural approvals from days to mere minutes, improving patient outcomes. Cognizant’s use of Microsoft’s Generative AI in its TriZetto platform already shows promise in reducing hidden costs and enhancing patient outcomes in the American healthcare system.
Cognizant and Microsoft plan to co-develop bespoke industry-specific solutions using the Copilot Studio platform, allowing users to tailor their own industry-and business-specific Copilots using generative AI, business applications, and enterprise data. The sectors targeted for these innovations include retail, consumer goods, financial services, life sciences, manufacturing, and communications and media.
Ongoing projects
Some ongoing projects include a media company using generative AI to translate and localize video content, a manufacturing company improving remote engineering diagnostics, an education provider overhauling its operational model to provide personalized digital content, and a communications provider enhancing customer experience and operational efficiency through AI-driven process automation.
Supporting these initiatives, Cognizant’s new Advanced AI Lab is dedicated to advancing AI science and developing proprietary technologies. The company also operates AI Innovation Studios in key global cities, which are equipped to showcase Microsoft’s generative AI technologies and facilitate co-innovation with clients.
"Our expanded partnership with Cognizant will help organizations harness generative AI to transform business operations, enhance employee experiences, and deliver new value for customers. By combining Cognizant's industry expertise with Microsoft's Copilot capabilities –including Copilot for Microsoft 365 and GitHub Copilot – we will help drive AI adoption and innovation for millions of users across its network," said Judson Althoff, Executive Vice president and Chief Commercial Officer at Microsoft.
Elsewhere, Cognizant and ServiceNow have formed a strategic partnership to promote the widespread adoption of AI-driven automation in various industries.
