Cognizant Creates New Job Roles for AI Era

As AI capabilities increase, many businesses are reworking employee responsibilities and job structures. 

Cognizant has done just that, announcing the creation of two new job categories – Frontier Certified Engineer and Frontier Business Operator – that it says have been “purpose-built” for the AI era. 

This announcement follows the launch of Cognizant’s AI Builder Strategy, in which the company is focused on engineering custom, context-infused AI platforms rather than plug-and-play tools to help close the gap between AI potential and business ROI.

According to research from Cognizant, the gap between what AI can deliver and what enterprises are realising currently stands at US$4.5 trillion – reflecting a critical shortage of the people and processes that can meaningfully deploy the technology. 

“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.”

Empowering workers to use AI

Cognizant’s new roles have been designed to reimagine key business processes using AI. 

Frontier Engineers will work directly with client organisations to realign business processes for an AI-enabled environment, while Frontier Certified Engineers will specialise in fundamentally rethinking how work gets done. This will involve identifying where the technology can transform operations, reduce friction and help to develop a competitive advantage – with Cognizant saying the role will require both strategic thinking and technical fluency. 

Frontier Business Operators, meanwhile, will be tasked with taking “full ownership” of operational results. In their roles, they will manage a combination of both human and digital employees – which will include deploying AI agents and automation alongside human judgement to help drive business outcomes. 

“The question every enterprise is asking is why AI results aren't showing up yet,” says Thirumala Arohi, Senior Vice President and Head of Learning and Development at Cognizant. “The answer is talent and process. AI has exposed 93% of jobs to automation, yet the US$4.5tn in labour 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.”

Rapidly developing AI-ready talent

According to Cognizant, the company will be deploying its SkillSpring platform to onboard and develop employees in these roles – with the company saying the learning platform is “central to the initiative”. 

Both its Frontier Certified Engineer and Frontier Business Operator talent tracks are being built at scale, and will undergo structured learning paths that span AI fluency, process design, data interpretation and operational leadership.

This platform, Cognizant says, has been designed to compress the amount of time it will take new hires to reach full productivity – allowing it to scale out these new roles at faster rates. 

“SkillSpring gives us the ability to rapidly develop associates who can lead in an AI-first environment,” says Kathy. “This is how we build a workforce that isn't just ready for what's next but is actively shaping it.”