Cognizant Commits 25,000 Professionals to Deploy Claude in Enterprises

Cognizant has committed more than 25,000 professionals to deploying Anthropic's Claude for enterprise clients. The IT services company has also introduced a managed services model under which it will operate Claude-powered systems in production on behalf of clients.

The model combines dedicated personnel, licensed access to Claude, and Cognizant's proprietary software.

"Clients want a partner who will take responsibility for delivery once AI is running inside their business," Ravi Kumar S, CEO of Cognizant, said in a statement. "We are putting more than 25,000 of our people on Claude and taking on the job of running it for clients through managed services."

The announcement builds on Cognizant's expanded partnership with Anthropic in July, when it outlined plans to integrate Claude into its engineering platforms. 

Cognizant said more than 44,000 associates across its business units and corporate functions had been trained or certified on Claude. It also reported more than 26,000 Claude certifications.

The group will focus on applying AI to business processes, modernising existing systems, deploying and managing AI agents, and using AI in software development. Cognizant will also use Claude-powered agents to analyse and refactor legacy code, including mainframe systems.

Other Indian IT services companies are also building teams around frontier AI models. HCLTech signed a partnership with Anthropic in October, establishing a dedicated business unit and a Centre of Excellence for Claude-based enterprise solutions.

"Every enterprise is racing to bring AI into its organisation, but the people with the skills to make it work inside a real business have become the hardest talent to find," said Paul Smith, Chief Commercial Officer at Anthropic. "Cognizant is working to address that gap, committing more than 25,000 people to help their customers put Claude to work across their businesses."

Under the managed services model, Cognizant will operate Claude-powered systems in production for clients. The company said the offering would provide more predictable AI spending, with security and governance controls tailored to each client's requirements. It did not disclose the commercial terms.