Cognizant, the American IT solutions company announced an expanded partnership with Google Cloud today centered on deploying Gemini Enterprise and Google Workspace across its entire global workforce before packaging the same system for enterprise clients.
The company has invested in, and is deploying, Google Workspace alongside Gemini Enterprise internally, with the goal of enhancing productivity, employee experience and delivery velocity across the enterprise, according to the February 16 announcement.
“This partnership reinforces Cognizant’s position as an AI builder, a new kind of services partner focused on creating purpose-built, enterprise-grade solutions that drive real business outcomes,” said Annadurai Elango, President of Core Technologies and Insights at Cognizant.
Damilare Odedina
What Cognizant is Actually Building
Cognizant is establishing a dedicated Gemini Enterprise Center of Excellence to prove that AI agents can be as reliable as traditional software. To do this, the company is introducing the Agent Development Lifecycle (ADLC), a framework that moves AI from an experimental feature to a core design requirement. This system forces developers to test and validate autonomous agents during the blueprinting phase, ensuring they perform consistently before they ever interact with real business data.
For clients, that translates into a productivity offering combining Gemini Enterprise with Google Workspace to help them move from manual, fragmented tasks to streamlined, AI-driven workflows. Announced use cases include:
• Collaborative content creation
• Supplier communications
• AI-powered contact centers
• Intelligent order management
Deployment relies on two internal platforms designed to speed up execution. Cognizant Ignition manages the planning stage, using Gemini to prototype solutions and clean up client data before development starts. Cognizant Agent Foundry handles the actual build, offering a library of ready-made software components that allow companies to assemble complex agents without writing every line of code from scratch.
With its global cadre of Gemini-trained specialists, Cognizant will continue to scale delivery across agentic coding initiatives and Google Distributed Cloud programs. These capabilities will be showcased through Cognizant’s existing Google Experience Zones and Gen AI Studios.
The Services Partner Model
“Our partnership with Cognizant brings together advanced AI technology and deep industry expertise to help enterprises operationalize agentic AI,” said Kevin Ichhpurani, President of Global Ecosystem and Channels at Google Cloud. “Together, we are enabling organizations to deploy enterprise-ready AI solutions that deliver real business impact.”
Google isn’t alone in working with services partners. OpenAI uses consulting firms for ChatGPT Enterprise implementations. Microsoft distributes Azure AI through its partner network. Anthropic works with systems integrators for Claude deployments.
According to Cognizant, the enhanced partnership positions the company as a builder and operator of agentic AI systems at a time when enterprises are seeking clarity, governance, and measurable business impact from their AI investments. The partnership demonstrates how enterprises can adopt agentic AI at scale, moving beyond platform selection to execution-ready operating models.
Damilare Odedina
