 "Cognizant saw 13,000 associates joining back, says CEO Ravi Kumar")
Nasdaq-listed information-technology services firm Cognizant has said close to 13,000 associates have returned to the company as it reverts to growth and stability, according to Ravi Kumar, chief executive officer (CEO).
“The buzz around us is high … you can also see the LinkedIn traffic that is talking about the company. The mojo of the company is back. They have worked at Cognizant earlier and now want to come back. We are also going to campuses, starting next year, in a big way,” he said.
He was talking in a media briefing after the Q3 results.
The company added 3,800 employees in the third quarter of FY24.
The firm’s headcount addition during the quarter was similar to that of peers, who announced hiring going up.
However, Cognizant’s headcount declined by 6,500 on year-on-year.
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The company did not give the hiring target for 2025.
Jatin Dalal, chief financial officer, added that keeping in view the growth trajectory the firm would be adding people.
“If you look at volume growth this quarter it is 3.5 per cent in constant currency growth. Of this 150 basis points came from Belcan, but 200 basis points came organically. If we are generating incremental revenue every quarter then we need to reach out and hire the top talent from the market,” he said.
When asked how artificial intelligence was impacting the firm’s business process management (BPM) business. Kumar said it was a unique technology that would impact knowledge workers across segments.
“There have always been technologies that have disrupted tasks at the bottom of the pyramid. In some way that is where BPO (business process outsourcing) too is. I believe that this is a technology that is not only going to disrupt the bottom of the pyramid task but also knowledge workers,” he added.
At Cognizant on an annualised basis 2 million lines of code is written by AI algorithms and platforms.
“The issue is not just about people in BPO but also people in software coding, testing, and designing. But as knowledge workers get disrupted more software will get written because it gives unique access to more people. There are only 26 million software developers in the world. This will give access to more developers. This will further lead to higher productivity, lower cost,” said Kumar as he explained the impact of AI on developers.
He acknowledged on the BPO side some jobs would vanish but that would create opportunities. Every process will have AI agents, and as those agents automate human efforts there will be jobs.
“Cognizant has a large exposure to natives, and they in the BPO world reinforce machine learning algorithms. As machines write more and more software, to interact with these machines you will need people with different skills like liberal arts,” he added.
In context
340,100 Total headcount (includes Belcan)
An increase of 3,800 employees in Q3 compared to Q2
Headcount decreased by 6,500 Y-o-Y
Cognizant will hire more from campuses, starting next year