Cognizant net profit up 7%; Microsoft to equip 2M Indians with AI skills

Cognizant posts 7% rise in net profit for Q4

IT services company Cognizant has reported a revenue of $4.76 billion for the fourth quarter of 2023, which is a year-on-year (YoY) decline of 1.7%. The net profit during this period stood at $558 million—an increase of 7% on a YoY basis.

For the full year of 2023, Cognizant registered a revenue of $19.4 billion, which is a dip of 0.4% when compared with 2022. The bookings for the fourth quarter stood at $26.3 billion—a 9% rise on a YoY basis.

In terms of revenue guidance for the first quarter of 2024, the company estimated the growth will be in the range of -2.7% to +1.2%. For the full year, it expects the growth rate to be in the range of -1.8% to +2.2%.

On the company's performance, CEO Ravi Kumar S said, “We delivered Q4 revenue within our guided range and we’ve maintained our commercial momentum. Full-year bookings of $26.3 billion represent an increase of 9% year-over-year, driven by new clients and large deals.”

Microsoft unveils initiative to skill 2M people on AI in India

Microsoft has unveiled a skilling initiative in India, aiming to equip 2 million people with AI skills by 2025. The ADVANTA(I)GE INDIA initiative is part of Microsoft’s Skills for Jobs programme, which aims to train the workforce with future-ready skills. It is also aligned with the company’s responsible AI principles and training will be delivered in partnership with governments, non-profit and corporate organisations, and communities.

According to Microsoft’s recent Work Trend Index, 90% of Indian leaders say the people they hire will need new skills to prepare them for the growth of AI. Furthermore, 78% of Indian workers say they don’t have the right AI capabilities to complete their current work.

To address this gap, ADVANTA(I)GE INDIA will focus on training individuals in Tier II and III cities, as well as rural areas, enabling people to participate in the new era of AI and unlock inclusive socio-economic progress.

The ADVANTA(I)GE INDIA initiative will focus on three key areas to create AI fluency-Equipping India’s future workforce, upskilling government officials in AI, and working to build the AI capability of non-profit organisations.

Akamai unveils product to prevent scraping attacks

Akamai Technologies has announced the availability of Content Protector, a product that enables stopping scraping attacks without blocking the good traffic that companies need to enhance their business.

According to the company, scraper bots are a critical and often productive part of the commerce ecosystem. These bots search for new content, highlight products in comparison sites, and gather updated product information to share with customers. Unfortunately, scrapers also get used for harmful purposes such as competitive undercutting, surveillance before inventory hoarding attacks, and counterfeiting goods and websites.

Akamai Content Protector helps detect and mitigate evasive scrapers that steal content for malicious purposes. The company said it facilitates better detections and fewer false negatives without increasing the rate of false positives. The product is designed for companies that need to protect their intellectual property, reputation, and revenue potential.

Genpact expands partnership with ServiceNow

Business process management company Genpact has expanded its partnership with ServiceNow, a digital workflow technology company, to provide source-to-pay applications across finance and supply chain operations.

The Genpact Source-to-Pay offering uses ServiceNow AI capabilities to help improve team productivity, simplify the user experience, and increase cost efficiency.

ServiceNow connects the enterprise end-to-end with AI built natively into the platform. The Source-to-Pay offering from Genpact leverages these AI capabilities to allow businesses and teams to quickly and accurately identify, understand, and extract data from finance and supply chain documents, even when the documents have varied text, formatting, and templates.