Cognizant Says AI Agents Could Handle 40% of Client Work, Jobs May Shrink

Cognizant CFO Jatin Dalal has said that artificial intelligence (AI) agents could eventually handle 30–40% of the company’s client work, warning that its human workforce may shrink if business growth does not keep pace with AI-led productivity gains.

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Speaking at a fireside chat with BMO Capital Markets’ Keith Bachman on Thursday, November 12, Dalal said the company’s future workforce requirements would depend on its revenue growth and the extent to which AI agents take over tasks currently performed by employees.

Workforce Growth Will Depend on Business Expansion

Dalal explained that around 70% of client work requires human involvement and judgement, while the remaining 30% involves tasks that can be handled through more predictable responses.

Cognizant is looking at offering clients a combination of human employees and AI agents, with virtual agents handling an increasing share of service delivery.

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He said that if the company achieves only 15% aggregate growth over the next five years, its human workforce would shrink. However, if Cognizant grows to 1.5 times its current size, it may need more employees.

The development has particular significance for India, where nearly three-fourths of Cognizant’s 351,600 employees are based.

The company has not announced a specific timeline for AI agents to handle 30–40% of its client work.

Pricing Pressure and Changing IT Services Model

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Dalal also described 2026 as one of the most competitive years for pricing in the IT services industry in the past three years. Companies are facing pressure to retain existing clients and win new business amid slower technology spending and increasing AI adoption.

Cognizant reported revenue of $21.1 billion in 2025, an increase of 7%. The company has revised its 2026 revenue growth guidance to 4.5–4.9%, citing slower technology spending by clients in the healthcare and consumer sectors.

To address these changes, Cognizant is expanding beyond traditional labour-based services. Its integrated offerings combine four areas:

• Infrastructure
• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
• Security software
• AI inference

The company aims to move towards outcome-based contracts, where clients pay for business results rather than only the number of employees deployed.

Dalal expects revenue deflation in the IT services industry to ease in the second half of 2027.

Changing Workforce Requirements

Cognizant’s comments come amid a broader restructuring of its workforce and operating model around AI.

The company recently introduced a three-stage role architecture covering current, evolving and future roles, aligning job designations with how AI is changing employees’ responsibilities. It has also announced a dedicated Claude Frontier Capability Group involving more than 25,000 professionals.

These developments indicate that AI adoption is changing not only how IT services are delivered but also the skills, roles and workforce requirements of technology companies.

Final Comments

Cognizant’s workforce outlook highlights a key question facing the IT services industry: whether business growth will generate enough new work to offset the reduction in human effort through AI automation.

For India’s IT workforce, the coming years could bring changes in hiring patterns, job responsibilities, skill requirements and the overall employee mix.