Smarter Support, Quicker Fixes: Cognizant Partners with Google Cloud to Rethink Customer Service with AI

Rhea-AI Summary

Cognizant (CTSH) has partnered with Google Cloud to launch Cognizant® Autonomous Customer Engagement, an AI-powered contact center solution. The platform combines Cognizant's industry expertise with Google Cloud's Customer Engagement Suite to deliver personalized customer experiences. The solution uses advanced AI agents with Google Cloud Voice AI to handle routine interactions autonomously while allowing human intervention for complex cases. Key features include omnichannel support, continuous learning capabilities, enterprise-grade scalability, robust security, integrated transaction management, and predictive analytics. An early adopter in the food services industry has reported reduced call abandonment, lower operational costs, and improved first-contact resolution rates. The solution is designed to enhance customer satisfaction, accelerate support, and enable smarter interactions across digital and voice channels.

Positive

• Partnership with tech giant Google Cloud enhances Cognizant's AI capabilities and market position
• Early adoption shows reduced operational costs and improved first-contact resolution rates
• Platform offers multiple revenue-generating features including predictive analytics and cross-selling capabilities
• Solution provides enterprise-grade scalability and seamless cloud deployment capabilities

Negative

• Implementation may require significant system integration and training efforts
• Dependency on Google Cloud infrastructure could limit flexibility
• Potential initial investment costs for organizations adopting the solution

Insights

Enterprise Technology Analyst

Cognizant's AI contact center solution with Google Cloud strengthens competitive position in growing customer experience automation market.

Cognizant's new partnership with Google Cloud represents a strategic expansion of its AI capabilities in the customer experience domain. The Autonomous Customer Engagement solution addresses a critical market need as enterprises increasingly seek to balance automation with human support in contact centers. By leveraging Google Cloud's Customer Engagement Suite and Voice AI technologies, Cognizant is positioning itself at the intersection of two high-growth markets: contact center automation and generative AI applications.

The solution's "AI-first with human assist" approach differentiates it from traditional automation tools by enabling autonomous handling of routine interactions while reserving human intervention for complex scenarios. This intelligent orchestration aims to optimize operational efficiency while preserving customer satisfaction – addressing the primary pain points in contact center operations.

Early adoption results in the food service industry point to meaningful business impacts through reduced call abandonment, lower operational costs, and improved first-contact resolution. These metrics directly translate to ROI for potential enterprise clients. The revenue potential extends beyond cost savings through features designed for cross-selling and transaction management integration, creating opportunities for clients to generate additional revenue from customer interactions.

For Cognizant, this represents an evolution of its BPO and customer experience offerings into higher-value AI-enabled services, which typically command better margins. The partnership with Google Cloud also gives Cognizant access to cutting-edge AI capabilities without requiring the full R&D investment, enabling faster time-to-market in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

By pairing generative AI with human support in contact center operations, the collaboration aims to improve customer satisfaction, accelerate support, and drive smarter interactions across digital and voice channels – for consumers and enterprise clients.

TEANECK, N.J., June 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH), in partnership with Google Cloud, has launched Cognizant^® Autonomous Customer Engagement, a new AI-led autonomous contact center solution, built to deliver hyper-personalized customer experiences across every stage of the order journey, across industries. This solution fuses Cognizant's deep expertise in industry-specific processes and contact center operations with the advanced intelligence of Google Cloud's Customer Engagement Suite, to deliver interactions that are customized, intuitive and responsive.

The solution utilizes advanced AI agents¹ to anticipate customer demands as well as address requests in real-time across both voice and digital channels. By employing Google Cloud Voice AI's natural language processing and machine learning, Cognizant Autonomous Customer Engagement is built to accurately understand and respond to user requests in order to provide quicker resolutions, shorter wait times, and reduced operational costs.

"Consumers are increasingly looking for seamless and positive experiences, and Cognizant's Autonomous Customer Engagement solution focuses on delivering personalized guest interactions at scale," said Sandeep Bhasin, global head, health sciences, consumer goods and retail, Intuitive Operations and Automation, Cognizant. "Through this innovative partnership with Google Cloud, Cognizant aims to significantly enhance customer experience through a dynamic combination of AI and human agents, backed by Cognizant's deep business process expertise."

Unlike traditional automation solutions, Cognizant Autonomous Customer Engagement takes an AI-first with human assist approach, where virtual agents handle most customer interactions autonomously, managing routine interactions with accuracy, and engaging customers with natural, dynamic conversations, in line with parameters and objectives defined by the client. In scenarios requiring nuanced decision-making or emotional intelligence, human agents would be able to intervene and solve customer challenges with seamless continuity. Furthermore, analytics and dynamic learning are intended to facilitate cross-selling by enabling agents to anticipate and address customer needs proactively.

One early adopter of the Cognizant Autonomous Customer Engagement solution in the food services industry is already seeing significant progress in delivering frictionless customer experience, alongside reductions in call abandonment, operational costs and increased first-contact resolution rates. The platform's ability to scale AI-driven conversations while keeping human intervention targeted and strategic aims to set a new benchmark for contact center efficiency.

"Enterprises can utilize agentic AI to fundamentally improve customer support, enhancing speed and personalization while improving operational efficiency," said Victor Morales, VP of Global System Integrators Partnerships, Google Cloud. "Our partnership with Cognizant will help deliver a new generation of support experiences that provide the high-quality, personalized outcomes that customers expect." 

Cognizant Autonomous Customer Engagement offers organizations across industries a variety of features, including:

• Omnichannel support, integrating voice, chat, and messaging into a single AI-powered platform.
   
• Continuous learning to help ensure that AI models evolve with each interaction, improving accuracy and contextual understanding of the customer over time.
   
• Enterprise-grade scalability to support organizations of all sizes with near-seamless cloud deployment and integration capabilities.
   
• Industry-leading data privacy and security infrastructure, built on Google Cloud, with end-to-end encryption, robust threat detection, and designed to comply with global regulatory standards.
   
• Integrated transaction management with existing systems of record and customization capabilities to address localized product offerings and customer preferences – designed to increase precision and reduce on-call time.
   
• Predictive and prescriptive analytics built to anticipate needs and maximize revenue generation. For example, in retail, leveraging customer loyalty data, demographic data, and real-time consumption trends, retailers may proactively provide personalized options to customers while maximizing order revenue.
   
• A next-gen cloud-based telephony platform, enabling global customer support delivery, helping to reduce costs and allowing for reinvestment into improving in-house guest experiences.
   
• Future-ready extensibility with Google Cloud's AgentSpace: Cognizant Autonomous Customer Engagement is designed with extensibility in mind. Future iterations could integrate with AgentSpace to capitalize on its robust ecosystem of out-of-the-box and custom AI agents, and connectors, enabling integration with enterprise platforms compatible with the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol.

"Generative AI, paired with real-time analytics, is unlocking a new era of customer operations," said David Rickard, Partner at Everest Group. "For businesses, this means lower costs through automation and smarter resource allocation. For customers, it translates into faster, more personalized, and more natural interactions. Solutions like Cognizant's Autonomous Customer Engagement are designed to intelligently incorporate AI to enhance the human touch to deliver experiences that are effective, efficient and empathetic."

For more information visit Cognizant Autonomous Customer Engagement.

About Cognizant

Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) engineers modern businesses. We help our clients modernize technology, reimagine processes and transform experiences so they can stay ahead in our fast-changing world. Together, we're improving everyday life. See how at www.cognizant.com or @cognizant.

For more information, contact:

U.S. Name Ben Gorelick Email benjamin.gorelick@cognizant.com

Europe / APAC Name Christina Schneider Email christina.schneider@cognizant.com

India Name Rashmi Vasisht Email rashmi.vasisht@cognizant.com

¹ These AI agents are fundamentally shaped and governed by the client's strategic direction, data inputs, and compliance frameworks. While the client retains primary responsibility for defining the agents' objectives, ethical parameters, and operational scope, Cognizant serves as a trusted implementation partner, bringing those directives to life through expert design, deployment, and optimization, in alignment with the client's established oversight and priorities.

 

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/smarter-support-quicker-fixes-cognizant-partners-with-google-cloud-to-rethink-customer-service-with-ai-302484358.html

SOURCE Cognizant Technology Solutions

FAQ

What is Cognizant's new AI customer service solution with Google Cloud?

Cognizant® Autonomous Customer Engagement is an AI-led contact center solution that combines Cognizant's industry expertise with Google Cloud's Customer Engagement Suite to deliver personalized customer experiences and automated support across digital and voice channels.

How does CTSH's Autonomous Customer Engagement solution work?

The solution uses advanced AI agents with Google Cloud Voice AI to handle routine customer interactions autonomously, while human agents can intervene for complex cases. It features omnichannel support, continuous learning, and predictive analytics for personalized customer service.

What are the key benefits of Cognizant's new customer service platform?

Key benefits include reduced operational costs, improved first-contact resolution rates, lower call abandonment, personalized customer interactions, and enhanced cross-selling capabilities through predictive analytics.

What features does Cognizant's AI customer service solution include?

The solution includes omnichannel support, continuous learning capabilities, enterprise-grade scalability, integrated transaction management, predictive analytics, and a cloud-based telephony platform with robust security features.

Has Cognizant's new AI customer service solution been tested?

Yes, an early adopter in the food services industry has already implemented the solution and reported significant improvements in customer experience, reduced call abandonment, lower operational costs, and better first-contact resolution rates.