Recognition spans AI-native strategy, telecom engineering and operations and media content, streaming and monetization
November 12, 2026 – Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) today announced it has been named a Leader in eight of the nine quadrants in the ISG Provider Lens® 2026 study, Telecom, Media and Entertainment (TME) AI-Native Transformation Services. The study evaluates how service providers help telecom and media enterprises move toward AI-native operating models. Cognizant was positioned as a Leader in:
- Strategy, Monetization and AI-Native Enablement
- AI-Led Telco Engineering and Software Services
- Autonomous Telecom IT and Business Operations
- AI-Driven Telecom Customer and Revenue Operations
- AI-Driven Content Operations and Supply Chain Services
- OTT, Streaming and Audience Experience Services
- Media Cloud and Platform Engineering Services
- AI-Driven Monetization, AdTech and Revenue Operations
In the Strategy, Monetization and AI-Native Enablement quadrant, ISG highlighted Cognizant’s ability to connect advisory, engineering, governance and operationalization. Cognizant’s AI Builder model is designed to help clients ground and govern AI agents across existing environments, reducing the need for rip-and-replace transformation. Cognizant assets including Neuro® AI, Agent Foundry and Ignition® Ontology support opportunity discovery, agent deployment and governance across AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, while an ecosystem-led monetization approach spans network-as-a-service, API exposure and partners including Microsoft, Google Cloud, NVIDIA, Anthropic and Palantir.
In AI-led telco engineering, ISG recognized Cognizant’s production-scale use of GenAI across modernization, testing and agentic development. For a North American client, an AI-led source-to-production workflow reduced software development lifecycle effort by 60 percent, and Cognizant’s AI Digital Assurance Optimizer cut the test estate for an Australian telecom billing transformation by 72 percent.
In telecom operations and customer engagement, ISG cited Cognizant’s operations assets, including NOC Assist®, SMART NOC® and Assurance360®, which let operators automate specific journeys without replacing their operations stack. At a North American Tier 1 operator, zero-touch remediation delivered a 30–40 percent reduction in mean time to repair and 70 percent alarm deflection. For a leading U.S. communications provider, pairing deterministic workflows with GenAI produced up to 17 percent higher first-contact resolution and 20 percent lower handling times.
For media and entertainment companies, ISG recognized Cognizant’s end-to-end approach to the content supply chain, from ingestion and metadata enrichment to localization, rights management and distribution. Proprietary assets such as assetSERV, Skygrade™ and Flowsource™ are combined with managed content operations delivered across more than 40 countries, helping media organizations modernize without replacing existing technology estates.
In streaming, ISG noted Cognizant’s ability to engineer, modernize and operate OTT platforms at scale, including migrating an APAC video provider serving more than 45 million subscribers to Microsoft Azure. For a large media distributor, streaming modernization delivered $24 million in annual revenue growth, 35 percent lower IT spend and 76 percent faster digital-feature delivery.
In advertising and revenue operations, ISG recognized Cognizant’s combination of broadcaster heritage and digital-scale delivery, with more than 413 million campaigns trafficked annually. For a major U.S. media company, automation reduced proposal creation from more than two hours to two minutes and generated $3.1 million in annual savings, supported by reusable AI assets including Ad Elevate and Intelligent Media Planner.
“Telecom and media companies are no longer asking whether AI belongs in the business. They are asking how to make it run the business,” said Anurag Sinha, Senior Vice President and Business Unit Leader, Communications, Media and Technology, Cognizant. “ISG’s recognition across eight quadrants reflects what we are building with our clients: value-led strategy paired with engineering, governed agents and managed operations, so AI moves out of the pilot phase and into production, from the network and the contact center to the content supply chain and the ad desk. We are proud to help our clients build AI-native operations and new sources of revenue.”
“Cognizant stands out for the breadth with which it connects AI, engineering and operations across telecom and media. Its opportunity is increasingly about converting that scale into intelligent, connected workflows—from network and platform modernization through customer experience, content, and monetization,” said Yash Jethani, Principal Analyst, ISG.
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About Cognizant
Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is an AI builder and technology services provider, building the bridge between AI investment and enterprise value by building full-stack AI solutions for our clients. Our deep industry, process and engineering expertise enables us to build an organization’s unique context into technology systems that amplify human potential, realize tangible returns and keep global enterprises ahead in a fast-changing world. See how at cognizant.ai or @cognizant.