Cognizant Puts 25,000 AI Specialists on the Enterprise Front Line

Something big is moving from AI experimentation into enterprise execution. Cognizant has created the OpenAI Frontier Capability Group, bringing more than 25,000 professionals together to help businesses put ChatGPT and Codex to work across software development, customer service, and operations.

This is not a small training push or a single product launch. It is a dedicated capability built to help clients deploy, build, and maintain OpenAI-powered systems, backed by a workforce that has already spent time learning the technology inside Cognizant.

A 25,000-Person Push Into Real Business Systems

Cognizant says many organisations now need employees who can integrate advanced AI into essential business systems. The new group is designed to meet that demand, with initial work centered on AI-assisted software engineering through Codex, application modernisation, and customer operations supported by AI tools.

Application modernisation includes updating legacy mainframe code, a task that connects new AI capabilities with systems businesses already depend on. The group will also focus on building and maintaining OpenAI-powered systems for clients, turning models into working tools that support everyday business functions.

Ravi Kumar S, Cognizant’s CEO, described the shift as a change in both the builders and the building process: “Over the last 50 years, every shift in enterprise technology has changed who builds the systems and how.”

“With Codex and ChatGPT, OpenAI is changing both at once,” Kumar said. “We are committing more than 25,000 of our people to bring that change inside our clients’ businesses.”

Training, Internal Use, and a Model for Client Deployments

The group expands on a substantial internal learning effort. Cognizant says more than 21,000 employees have earned more than 40,000 OpenAI badges through internal learning tracks that recognize completion of training on OpenAI technology.

That foundation matters because Cognizant often pilots new approaches within its own operations before extending them to clients. Its sales and customer success teams already use solutions based on OpenAI models to identify and pursue business opportunities, giving the company an internal setting for testing how these systems support work.

Kumar summed up that progression in a single line: “We started with our own, and OpenAI is beginning to reshape how we sell.”

The effort also draws on Cognizant’s Frontier workforce model. Through that model, the company is developing Frontier Business Operators and Frontier Certified Engineers in partnership with companies that produce frontier AI models. The goal is a workforce prepared not only to use AI tools, but to connect them with business processes and keep those systems running for clients.

OpenAI chief revenue officer Dali Rajic said businesses are rethinking operations “from the way they serve customers to how they get work done.” Rajic added that bringing together more than 25,000 professionals in a dedicated OpenAI practice can help more enterprises turn AI into meaningful business impact.

From Mainframe Code to Millions of Conversations

Cognizant’s planned focus reaches across the systems and teams that keep enterprises moving. The group’s work will include:

• Using Codex for AI-assisted software engineering.
• Applying OpenAI models to application modernisation, including updates to legacy mainframe code.
• Enhancing customer operations with AI-based tools.
• Building and maintaining OpenAI-powered systems for clients.

The company points to prior experience modernising core legacy systems and deploying OpenAI-powered solutions in-house. One client project created an enterprise assistant for a global biopharmaceutical company, managing more than five million conversations and reducing content creation time by 60%.

That example shows the practical question behind the new group: can AI move beyond a demonstration and handle work at enterprise scale? In this case, the answer includes a large conversation workload and a measurable reduction in the time needed to create content.

“OpenAI is helping businesses fundamentally rethink how they operate,” Rajic said. “By bringing together more than 25,000 professionals in a dedicated OpenAI practice and putting our technology to work across its own operations, Cognizant is helping more enterprises turn AI into meaningful business impact.”

A Broader Frontier Race

Cognizant’s move arrives as the company builds more than one path into enterprise AI. Last month, it expanded its partnership with Google Cloud by establishing the Gemini Frontier Capability Group, which supports the deployment of agentic AI in enterprise settings.

Together, the two capability groups show how enterprise AI is becoming a workforce and delivery challenge, not only a model-selection challenge. Businesses need people who can connect models to software, customer operations, sales work, and legacy systems, then support those deployments after launch.

The scale of Cognizant’s OpenAI commitment puts that challenge in clear view. More than 25,000 professionals will support the work, while more than 21,000 employees have completed learning tracks tied to more than 40,000 OpenAI badges.

For enterprises, the next stage will be measured inside the systems where work happens: codebases, customer conversations, operational functions, and business development pipelines. Cognizant is betting that a trained, dedicated workforce can turn ChatGPT and Codex from powerful technologies into lasting parts of those systems.

The frontier is no longer only about what AI models can generate. It is about who can deploy them, who can maintain them, and how fast they can change the way an enterprise works.

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