New roles being developed at scale and backed by proprietary SkillSpring training platform, advance Cognizant’s AI Builder strategy to close the $4.5 trillion gap between AI capability and enterprise results
Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) a leading AI builder and technology services provider, today announced the creation of two new job categories; Frontier Certified Engineer and Frontier Business Operator, purpose-built for the AI era. The roles represent a significant expansion of Cognizant’s workforce strategy and are designed for a new generation of talent at the forefront of enterprise AI transformation.
The announcement is a direct extension of Cognizant’s AI Builder strategy, which is built on a single, urgent fact: most organizations have yet to translate AI into measurable business outcomes. Cognizant’s research measures the gap between what AI can deliver and what enterprises are realizing at $4.5 trillion, a figure reflecting a shortage of the people and processes capable of meaningfully putting AI to work.
Frontier Engineers will work directly with client organizations to reimagine and realign business processes for an AI-enabled environment. Frontier Certified Engineers will specialize in rethinking how work gets done — identifying where AI can reshape operations, eliminate friction, and create lasting competitive advantage. The role requires both strategic thinking and technical fluency, making it one of the most consequential pivot points into the AI-era workforce.
Frontier Business Operators take an equally critical approach. Tasked with taking full ownership of operational results, they will manage a blended workforce of human and digital labor including deploying AI agents, automation, and human judgment in concert to drive business outcomes. Where Frontier Certified Engineers redesign the map, Frontier Business Operators navigate it in real time.
Thirumala Arohi, Senior Vice President and Head of Learning and Development at Cognizant said, “The question every enterprise is asking is why AI results aren’t showing up yet. The answer is talent and process. AI has exposed 93% of jobs to automation, yet the $4.5 trillion in labor value that represents remains uncaptured. The reason is not the technology; it is the workforce architecture. The pyramid was built for a pre-AI world. Frontier Certified Engineers who design for agentic outcomes and the Frontier Business Operators who own them are a new kind of professional, trained from day one to turn AI capability into business reality. The most important innovation of this decade will not come from AI. It will come from empowering every worker to use it.”
Central to the initiative is SkillSpring, Cognizant’s proprietary training platform built to onboard and develop talent for emerging AI-era roles. The Frontier Certified Engineer and Frontier Business Operator tracks, which are being built at scale, will undergo structured learning paths combining AI fluency, process design, data interpretation, and operational leadership — equipping them to use and orchestrate AI tools in high-stakes enterprise environments.
SkillSpring is designed to compress the traditional ramp time for associates, giving Cognizant clients faster access to job-ready talent while providing associates with a credentialed, career-defining foundation in human-AI collaboration.
“We are making a deliberate bet on the next generation,” said Kathy Diaz, Chief Human Resources Officer of Cognizant. “Frontier Certified Engineers and Frontier Business Operators are roles that are being designed from scratch and at scale for the world we are in now. SkillSpring gives us the ability to rapidly develop associates who can lead in an AI-first environment. This is how we build a workforce that isn’t just ready for what’s next but is actively shaping it.”
The development of these roles underscores Cognizant’s position as an AI builder, a company that builds the human and operational infrastructure enterprises need to make AI work at scale. As organizations across every sector grapple with the challenge of turning AI investments into bottom-line results, Cognizant is investing in the talent model that makes that transition possible.
For more information about the AI builder strategy and SkillSpring, visit cognizant.ai.
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