Cognizant‘s chief AI officer, Babak Hodjat, has described concerns that artificial intelligence will disrupt IT services companies as “overblown.” This comes after Anthropic’s Claude AI tools wiped out more than a trillion dollars from the stock market. Speaking to Reuters, Hodjat said enterprises still require significant support to deploy, integrate, and manage AI systems, despite advances in automated tools from startups such as Anthropic.Hodjat noted that businesses are still far from relying on a single, all-purpose AI agent, adding, “That mapping is our job; it does not come just automatically out of the box,” he told Reuters. Hodjat, whose earlier work contributed to Apple’s Siri voice assistant, said demand for AI-led transformation continues to support growth for services firms. Cognizant, which has more than 70% of its workforce in India, has predicted annual revenue above Wall Street estimates.Meanwhile, rivals such as TCS and Wipro have also said AI adoption is expected to expand demand for software services rather than reduce it.
How AI has already impacted multiple jobs already
Hodjat’s comments supporting the continued role of services companies come even as AI-related job reductions begin to emerge across the industry. Shipping and logistics software firm WiseTech Global said it plans to lay off nearly one-third of its workforce as it integrates AI into customer software and internal operations. TCS announced 12,000 job cuts last year, though the company later said that the layoffs were not linked to AI.Cognizant, which currently generates around 30% of its code using AI and aims to increase this to 50%, said it does not see automation eliminating entry-level roles. CEO Ravi Kumar S said during the company’s earnings call earlier this month that Cognizant hired 25,000 fresh graduates in 2025 and expects to exceed that number in 2026.Hodjat also told Reuters that almost all of Cognizant’s clients have experimented with AI agents but recognise that they still need support to deploy these systems effectively within their existing infrastructure to generate returns
