Cognizant puts 18,000 staff behind Google’s Gemini in AI agent push

Cognizant and Google Cloud have formed a Gemini Frontier Capability Group, with more than 18,000 Cognizant staff dedicated to building AI agents for clients on Google’s Gemini. It will focus on updating old systems, developer tools, business process automation and cyber defence. No financial terms were disclosed.

Cognizant is dedicating more than 18,000 staff to building AI agents for clients on Google’s Gemini, the IT services company said on Monday. The new Gemini Frontier Capability Group is part of a wider deal with Google Cloud.

The group aims to help companies move AI agents from pilot projects into daily use. It will start with four areas: updating old software, developer tools, automating business processes, and cyber defence.

The two firms called it a “substantial joint investment” but did not share financial terms. The group builds on a Gemini practice that Cognizant set up in April.

“Establishing our dedicated Gemini Frontier Capability Group lets our best frontier engineering talent focus entirely on getting frontier AI into production for clients,” said Ravi Kumar S, Cognizant’s chief executive.

Cognizant said more than 55,000 of its staff have completed a Gemini training workshop with Google Cloud, which it called the largest of its kind so far. It is also rolling out Gemini to 100,000 of its own employees this year, with plans to reach 200,000. The company had about 357,000 staff at the end of June.

As an example, Cognizant said it helped an unnamed retailer raise developer productivity by 40% and cut costs by 35% using Gemini. The figures have not been independently checked.

Google has been courting consulting firms to sell its AI. In April, it set up a $750M partner fund to help them build agents on Google Cloud. In September, Accenture and Google formed a unit of up to 1,000 engineers to install Gemini inside client companies.

Cognizant is not tied to one AI provider, though. It was also among the first firms to join OpenAI’s Codex partner programme in April. Rivals are making similar moves, with TCS planning to retrain up to 8,900 staff as AI deployment engineers.