In a refreshing take amid global job loss fears due to AI, Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S has said that Artificial Intelligence will actually create new opportunities for school graduates and entry-level workers. Speaking to Fortune, he emphasized that Cognizant is redefining its hiring strategy to include more young professionals who can leverage AI tools effectively.
Rethinking the Corporate Pyramid
According to Kumar, most companies operate like a pyramid, where school graduates sit at the bottom, forming the foundation. However, with AI reshaping skill development, this structure is changing.
“The pyramid is going to be broader and shorter, and the path to expertise faster,” he explained.
He added that by integrating AI training early in education, students can develop practical, interdisciplinary skills faster than before.
Hiring School Graduates in the AI Era
Cognizant plans to hire more school graduates than ever before this year. Kumar believes AI can empower them to outperform traditional expectations:
“I can take a school graduate and give them the tooling so they can actually punch above their weight. AI is an amplifier of human potential. It’s not a displacement strategy,” he said.
He also urged education systems to reimagine K–12 and undergraduate learning, focusing on lifelong learning and AI-driven problem-solving.
New Kind of Workforce: Blending STEM and Non-STEM Skills
Kumar highlighted that the future of work lies in interdisciplinary collaboration. “If I’m a historian, I could blend it with computational skills and become a futurist. If I’m a biology major, I could crack drug development cycles using computation,” he said.
He envisions organizations where problem finders and solvers from diverse backgrounds—sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, and journalists—work together alongside engineers to tackle challenges powered by AI.
