February 3, 2026 – Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH), a leading global technology company, today announced it has been recognized as a Leader in 2025 Information Services Group (ISG) Provider Lens^TM Telecom, Media, and Entertainment Industry Services Report. ISG (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm, aims to understand key industry challenges and assess service provider capabilities to address unmet enterprise needs.

In the study, Leaders are noted to have a comprehensive product and service offering, a strong market presence and established competitive position. According to ISG, Leaders are strongly positioned to win business and represent innovative strength and competitive stability.

Strategy and Enablement Services

This quadrant evaluates providers offering strategic advice and enablement services to telcos, focusing on transformation, M&A and business strategies, from procurement to sales. Of the 41 companies assessed for this study, 31 qualified for this quadrant, with 11 being Leaders. “Cognizant leads North America’s TME strategy space by delivering GenAI-driven data cleanrooms and ad-sales modernization, anchored in Neuro^® AI-driven advisory and TM Forum-aligned modernization framework for compliant business outcomes,” said Yash Jethani, Lead Analyst, ISG. The report also notes that Cognizant’s strategy and enablement practice combines advisory services, data and GenAI frameworks with deep telecommunications, media and entertainment (TME) expertise, guiding clients in AI strategy, ecosystem governance and network-to-cloud transformation.

Telecom Managed and Next-Gen IT Services

In the Telecom Managed and Next-Gen IT Services quadrant, ISG evaluates providers offering next-gen IT or process outsourcing and engineering services for communication service providers (CSPs).  Providers included in the quadrant provide end-to-end managed and proactive IT and business services to telecom customers. These providers Integrate Gen AI, agentic AI, analytics and workflow orchestration into core telco IT processes with clear ROI. ISG’s Lead Analyst, Yash Jethani, highlights that “Cognizant stands out in North America’s telecom managed services through AIOps-driven automation and 5G operational readiness, enabling predictive, self-healing networks for major CSPs.” Cognizant also provides AI-automated, cloud-native telecom managed services through Cloud360™, SmartOps and NetOps.ai™, optimizing OSS/BSS, network automation and SLA delivery for North American operators. To help telcos meet FCC and ISO standards and comply with EU NIS2 and GDPR, Cognizant integrates data privacy and sustainability into its managed frameworks through carbon-intelligent infrastructure and automated compliance checks.

Media and Entertainment Managed and Next-Gen IT Services

In this quadrant, ISG assesses providers offering managed and advanced IT, cloud and engineering services to media and entertainment (M&E) enterprises, including broadcasters, OTT platforms, sports brands, content distributors and publishers. Providers in this quadrant are evaluated on their strategy-to-execution capabilities. When conducting their research, ISG found that “Cognizant leads North America’s media managed services space with AI-powered content, adtech and rights automation, blending cloud scalability with domain-rich delivery.” Cognizant’s partnerships with AWS and Azure were also praised for enabling elastic scaling during live events and on-demand delivery across millions of users.

“We are honored to be recognized by ISG as a leader in Telecom, Media and Entertainment, Managed and Next Gen IT services," said Anurag Sinha, Senior Vice President and Head of Communications, Media, and Technology (CMT) for Americas at Cognizant. “This recognition highlights our dedication to leadership at the convergence of technology and industry expertise. By leveraging an AI-driven strategy alongside deep domain knowledge, we aim to enable clients to transform their operating models thus supporting them to improve customer experiences and enhance business value.”

Read the Telecom – Managed and Next-Gen IT Services Report HERE.

Read the Media and Entertainment – Managed and Next-Gen IT Services Report HERE.

About ISG Provider Lens™  

The ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant research series is the only service provider evaluation of its kind to combine empirical, data-driven research and market analysis with the real-world experience and observations of ISG’s global advisory team. Enterprises will find a wealth of detailed data and market analysis to help guide their selection of appropriate sourcing partners, while ISG advisors use the reports to validate their own market knowledge and make recommendations to ISG’s enterprise clients. The research currently covers providers offering their services across multiple geographies globally.

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