Hyderabad, India – May 2025
Global IT services leader Cognizant has announced plans to recruit 20,000 fresh graduates in 2025, marking a strategic move to reshape its workforce structure and strengthen its AI-first software delivery approach. The hiring drive reflects the company’s intent to enhance its delivery capabilities in managed services and AI-led development.
CEO Ravi Kumar S shared the company’s vision following its Q1CY25 results, highlighting how this large-scale fresher intake will support Cognizant’s evolving talent model. This is the right time to rebalance our talent pyramid and build a future-ready workforce,” he stated.
Rebuilding the Talent Pyramid
The IT industry traditionally uses a pyramid model where a broad base of junior employees supports fewer senior roles. This structure optimizes costs and ensures scalability. Cognizant’s fresh hiring aligns with this approach, allowing the company to optimize salary structures while building long-term talent.
The company’s decision comes even as other Indian IT giants remain cautious, refraining from disclosing exact fresher hiring numbers due to uncertain demand trends. However, industry estimates suggest the top five Indian IT companies may still create up to 84,000 new IT jobs this fiscal year.
AI-First Training with FlowSource
As part of its onboarding process, Cognizant will train new hires on FlowSource, the company’s proprietary development platform that integrates human and AI-generated code. The goal is to immerse freshers in an AI-driven development environment from day one, enabling faster project delivery and innovation.
“This generation will learn to code using AI co-pilot tools, which will be their default way of working,” Kumar explained, emphasizing the company’s shift toward AI-native development practices.
Expanding Hiring Channels
In addition to mass fresher hiring, Cognizant is also actively recruiting from India’s premier engineering institutes like IITs and NITs for specialized roles, including full-stack development and high-performance engineering.
Cognizant is simultaneously exploring new talent pools, including non-engineering professionals with domain expertise in operations, healthcare, and finance, as part of what it calls the next wave of “agentification”—creating service models that go beyond traditional IT roles.
Focus on Global Capability Centres (GCCs)
Another major growth driver for Cognizant is the Global Capability Centre (GCC) segment. The company is currently working on six active GCC deals, with more than 20 in the pipeline. It plans to build, operate, and transfer end-to-end GCC services and offer long-term AI and automation solutions under high-value contracts.
Cognizant’s Hyderabad campus hosts one such critical GCC for Citizens Financial Group, reflecting the strategic importance of India in its global delivery network.
A Workforce Built on Loyalty and Growth
The company also boasts a strong internal talent foundation, with around 60,000 employees who have grown within the organization for over a decade. “These individuals form the backbone of our middle management. Their journey from campus recruits to experienced professionals is a key strength for us,” said Kumar.
As Cognizant doubles down on AI, managed services, and GCC-led growth, its 2025 hiring initiative signals a renewed commitment to investing in young talent and reshaping its delivery model to meet the future of tech services.