Cognizant doubles Synapse initiative, aims at upskilling 2 mn by 2030

Technology major Cognizant has expanded the scope of its global skilling initiative Synapse, setting a new goal to upskill two million individuals by 2030—double its original target. The Nasdaq-listed IT services firm said it surpassed its previous aim of training one million people by 2026, prompting a renewed commitment to scale digital workforce readiness amid accelerating AI disruption.

Unveiled in October 2023, Synapse was designed as a multi-stakeholder skilling engine to prepare workers for a tech-driven future, offering training tracks across generative AI and other emerging digital proficiencies. According to a study conducted by Cognizant and Oxford Economics, 90% of jobs—from entry-level to C-suite—are expected to experience disruption from AI over the next decade, intensifying the need for global upskilling programs across both private and public sector ecosystems.

“The expansion of our Synapse commitment marks a significant step toward building a more future-ready workforce,” said Ravi Kumar S., Chief Executive Officer, Cognizant. “Our bold commitment to reach two million individuals by 2030 reflects the essential role Cognizant plays in enabling people around the globe to thrive in the AI-powered age.”

As part of its India-focused deployment, the Synapse initiative has impacted nearly 39,000 individuals in two years through community learning initiatives, apprenticeships, STEM engagement, and jobseeker enablement programs. Cognizant said it aims to develop a new benchmark for workforce readiness by lowering socio-economic and cultural barriers to tech learning through collaborations with governments, academic institutions, technology alliances, nonprofits, and industry partners.

A core dimension of Synapse is skilling Cognizant’s own workforce. The company reported that more than 163,000 of its India-based associates have completed GenAI fundamentals training, 76,000 have trained on GenAI tool use, and over 9,000 employees have undergone advanced role-based GenAI certification as of October 2025—reflecting rising enterprise demand for AI-first delivery capabilities.

Under the expanded thrust, Cognizant plans to accelerate investments in learning and development, launch branded learning programs at client and partner locations, and broaden its consortium approach to create skilling-to-employment pathways.
The tech firm’s bet on Synapse highlights a wider trend across the IT services industry, where talent renewal and large-scale reskilling are becoming strategic differentiators in the shift toward AI-native operating models.

The renewed push also comes amid a sector-wide acceleration in AI-age skilling, as large IT services firms race to future-proof their talent pools and community pipelines. Infosys, through its Springboard initiative, has been targeting learners from school to mid-career professionals with free digital content, and has onboarded more than a million users globally as part of its goal to prepare millions for technology-led jobs by the latter half of the decade. Tata Consultancy Services continues to scale its TCS iON platform for jobseekers and learning institutions, and has recently consolidated AI-focused operations to create role-specific training tracks in prompt engineering, automation and AI-native delivery. Wipro too has intensified its internal reskilling charter through programs geared toward data science and cloud-first transformation, while expanding partnerships that enable job-linked training for analytics and cybersecurity roles.

Global technology players are not far behind. IBM, for instance, has committed to upskilling 30 million people worldwide by 2030 and is building consortium partnerships to equip workers and students for generative AI and advanced automation. As competition tightens, the ability to integrate learning ecosystems at scale — spanning employees, clients, academia, and social impact partners — is increasingly emerging as a strategic differentiator for IT services companies navigating the AI disruption cycle.