Read, Watch or Listen

Teaneck, New Jersey-based Cognizant Technology Solutions plans to cut between 12,000 and 15,000 jobs worldwide in 2026 under a major restructuring program called “Project Leap,” marking one of the company’s largest workforce overhauls to date. The initiative, reported on May 12, 2026, is designed to shift Cognizant away from traditional outsourcing models toward AI-augmented delivery systems as enterprise clients demand more automation and lower costs. The company, which employs about 357,000 people globally, expects to book severance and restructuring charges of between $230 million and $320 million as the reductions roll out over the year. Project Leap targets roles in application maintenance, traditional IT support, and business process outsourcing, areas the company says are increasingly handled by generative AI and advanced machine intelligence tools. India, which hosts more than 250,000 Cognizant employees, will see the heaviest impact, with an estimated 12,000 to 13,000 positions to be eliminated across major IT hubs including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai. Mid-level and entry-level workers in delivery and support functions are most exposed, reflecting what Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S. calls a shift from a “junior-heavy” pyramid to a “broader and shorter” workforce structure. The cuts, representing roughly 5% of Cognizant’s global headcount, come as the company moves to protect profit margins in a slowing global economy while investing heavily in AI infrastructure and digital tools. The restructuring aligns Cognizant with broader moves across the technology sector, where firms such as Meta, Amazon, and Oracle have also reduced staff in 2026 in response to accelerating AI adoption and the unwinding of labor-intensive outsourcing models.

Prepared by Christopher Adams and reviewed by editorial team.