Cognizant has formed a dedicated OpenAI Frontier Capability Group, bringing together more than 25,000 professionals to help enterprises deploy OpenAI technologies across software development, application modernisation and customer operations.
Announced on October 29, the initiative aims to help businesses move generative AI and AI-powered agents from experimentation into production environments. The group will work with OpenAI products, including Codex and ChatGPT, to integrate AI into enterprise software development and business processes.
Cognizant said the initiative builds on its internal AI training efforts, through which more than 21,000 employees have earned over 40,000 OpenAI badges by completing learning tracks on the company’s technologies. The new group will focus on delivering and supporting OpenAI-powered systems for clients.
The company is also developing a workforce model that includes Frontier Certified Engineers and Frontier Business Operators, with credentials from frontier AI model providers. The aim is to equip employees with the skills required to implement and manage AI applications within enterprise environments.
Cognizant to test AI solutions within its own operations
As part of its approach, Cognizant is deploying OpenAI technologies within its own business before extending tested solutions to clients.
The company’s sales and customer success teams already use a solution built on OpenAI models to identify and pursue business opportunities. Cognizant said experience from these internal deployments would help inform how it implements similar technologies for customers.
Ravi Kumar S, CEO of Cognizant, said the group would help bring changes driven by Codex and ChatGPT into client businesses. OpenAI chief revenue officer Dali Rajic said the initiative would help enterprises apply AI to customer service and internal operations.
Cognizant is an Advanced partner in the OpenAI Partner Network. Its recent Codex hackathons in India and the Americas attracted more than 12,000 participants, according to the company.
Three initial areas of focus
The OpenAI Frontier Capability Group will initially focus on AI-native software engineering, application modernisation and AI-powered customer operations.
In software engineering, Cognizant plans to use Codex to support developers as they write, test and deploy code. The objective is to integrate AI assistance into software development workflows while enabling engineers to review and validate outputs.
For application modernisation, the company will use its Cognizant Application Modernizer, powered by OpenAI models, to support the transition from legacy systems to cloud-native applications. The process includes analysing older mainframe code and generating code for modern cloud environments.
Cognizant said its engineers would review consequential decisions throughout the modernisation process. The company also cited its experience modernising mainframe systems for more than 500 clients.
The third area is customer operations, where Cognizant plans to apply OpenAI models to sales, service and support functions. This work will draw on its experience deploying AI in its own sales and customer success operations.
Enterprise deployment delivers measurable results
Cognizant is already working with clients on OpenAI-powered applications. At a global biopharmaceutical company, it co-developed an enterprise assistant that brings search, content creation, translation and approval workflows into a single interface.
The assistant has handled more than five million conversations and reduced content creation time by 60%, Cognizant said.
The deployment illustrates how the company intends to apply AI to specific business processes, combining model capabilities with enterprise workflows and systems.