“We face intense and evolving competition and our service offerings must keep pace with significant technological advances in the rapidly changing markets we compete in,” Kumar said in the annual report for 2023 released on Tuesday.
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The US-headquartered IT and professional services firm had last year announced that it would invest $1 billion over the next three years to augment its generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) capabilities.
Addressing shareholders, associates, clients and partners, in the annual report for 2023, Kumar, who took charge in January last year, said, “As I begin my second year as CEO, I see us in a far stronger position than when I wrote to you last year.”
In his letter, Kumar added, “In early 2024, we acquired Thirdera, an Elite ServiceNow partner that specializes in solutions for the ServiceNow platform. Adding Thirdera brings an on-andnear-shore global presence to our own ServiceNow Business Group and supports our strategy to rapidly scale this partnership in the years ahead.”
“As I begin my second year as CEO, I see us in a far stronger position than when I wrote to you last year,” Ravi Kumar said in the introductory note.
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In 2023, 90% of its global workforce invested in learning, with 270,000 of the employees acquiring at least one new skill or proficiency and 88,000 completing courses on AI and gen AI. “We have encouraged our employees to incorporate AI into their thinking and skilling and to take advantage of our company’s AI investments and infrastructure to prepare for a future of work shaped by this new era of technology, the report said.Kumar intends to reinvest the majority of savings into growth opportunities while continuing to target modest margin expansion in 2024.
The US-headquartered firm has 254,000 or more than three-fourths of its total headcount in India. It had 347,700 employees at the end of 2023.
As part of the NextGen programme implemented in May last year, the US-based firm incurred $115 million of employee separation costs and $114 million of facility exit and other costs totalling $229 million in 2023. It expects to incur total costs of about $300 million, with about $70 million of such costs anticipated in 2024.
During 2023, Cognizant reported total contract value (TCV) deals of above $100 million growing at 42% year-over-year.
Kumar, who joined in January last year from domestic rival Infosys, received $22.5 million as compensation for FY23, as shown in the company’s 2024 proxy statement filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
