Microsoft names Cognizant, Infosys, TCS, Wipro as frontier firms for massive Copilot deployment

Microsoft Names Cognizant, Infosys, TCS, Wipro as "Frontier Firms" for Copilot Deployment | AIM

Microsoft wants to deepen partnerships with India's top IT firms as they embed Copilot and agentic AI across enterprise operations at scale. Microsoft will expand partnerships with Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, and Wipro, positioning the four Indian IT majors as "frontier firms" in the global adoption of agentic AI, its chairman and CEO Satya Nadella announced during his AI tour in Bengaluru. Each company will deploy more than 50,000 Microsoft Copilot licenses, collectively exceeding 200,000 seats, the company said. The announcement comes a day after Microsoft unveiled plans to invest $17.5 billion in cloud and AI infrastructure, skills and operations in India over the next four years. According to the company, these partnerships will enable enterprises to enhance productivity, efficiency and accessibility, while accelerating AI-powered innovation across industries. Microsoft said embedding AI into core operations will position these Indian IT majors as 'frontier firms' that not only adopt AI early but also redesign workflows around human-agent collaboration to drive measurable impact across delivery, sales, finance, HR, and customer engagement. Puneet Chandok, president, Microsoft India & South Asia, said the four companies "are moving beyond experimentation to full-scale deployment, embedding Microsoft Copilot into the fabric of everyday work." Microsoft has also significantly expanded its partnership with Cognizant, calling the company its "client zero" for Copilot. The collaboration enables Cognizant to refine Copilot and agentic solutions for large-scale enterprise use, going beyond productivity improvements to fundamentally change how organisations access data, make decisions, and scale innovation. Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S, in a statement, said the technology sector is witnessing "a historic, largest infrastructure investment, with companies investing hundreds of billions annually into AI infrastructure." He added, "As an AI builder company, our mission is to bridge the gap between these investments and extract business value, ensuring our associates and clients benefit from Generative AI." Infosys, which has one of Microsoft's largest Copilot deployments across the world, is integrating Microsoft's intelligence layer into Infosys Topaz Fabric and Infosys Cobalt to operationalise multi-agent workflows. CEO and MD Salil Parekh said deploying Copilot at scale and embedding AI into the Topaz operating model is enabling Infosys to "shift from traditional workflows to a human-plus-agent powered AI-first enterprise." TCS is working with Microsoft to transform sales, HR and finance processes by democratising tools such as the 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot across its global workforce. The company said all employees now have a personalised AI coach. Microsoft also recently hosted a global hackathon to deep dive into AI agent development, with participation from more than 281,000 employees. "TCS has equipped tens of thousands of its professionals with Microsoft AI solutions. Microsoft Cloud, data, and AI technologies are integral to our business transformation," TCS CEO and MD K Krithivasan said. Wipro has entered into a three-year partnership with Microsoft and launched a Microsoft Innovation Hub at its Partner Labs in Bengaluru. With more than 50,000 Copilot licenses deployed and over 25,000 employees already upskilled in Microsoft Cloud and GitHub technologies, Wipro is embedding agentic AI across workflows in sectors ranging from financial services and retail to manufacturing and healthcare, Microsoft noted. "Wipro Intelligence... is helping us deliver game-changing outcomes that are reshaping how enterprises work and compete in the AI era," Wipro CEO and MD Srini Pallia said. "Our partnership with Microsoft amplifies this vision, accelerating the adoption of agentic AI and unlocking value for our clients and us."

Microsoft Partners With Big Tech Firms in India Over Agentic AI Adoption

Wipro has upskilled 25,000+ employees in Microsoft Cloud and GitHub Microsoft, on Thursday, announced partnerships with Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and Wipro to help these IT services firms adopt and scale Copilot-powered agentic artificial intelligence (AI) workflows. These IT giants are now using the AI capabilities internally as well as offering them to their clients in various forms. The Redmond-based tech giant highlights that through these collaborations, Indian tech sector will quickly develop the capacity to use and develop agentic tools. Notably, the announcement follows the $17.5 billion (roughly Rs. 1.57 lakh crore) investment the company committed earlier this week. Microsoft Partners with Big IT Firms in India In a newsroom post, the tech giant announced and detailed the newly forged partnerships in India. As part of the collaboration, each partnering company will deploy more than 50,000 Microsoft Copilot licenses, with the total reaching over 2,00,000 licenses. The IT firms, in turn, will use this to develop internal AI agents, as well as agentic workflows for their clients. Microsoft called Cognizant "client zero" for Copilot, adding that it has worked with the tech giant to refine the AI chatbot and create agentic solutions for its clients before the wider rollout. The company will now use the technology to transform data access and decision workflows across client engagement and internal operations. "We're experiencing the largest infrastructure investment in tech history, with companies investing hundreds of billions annually into AI infrastructure. As an AI builder company, our mission is to bridge the gap between these investments and extracting business value, ensuring our associates and clients benefit from Generative AI," said Ravi Kumar S, CEO of Cognizant. Infosys, on the other hand, will integrate Microsoft's intelligence layer with its Topaz Fabric and Cobalt platforms to operationalise multi-agent workflows and embed AI directly into its products and services. The company said this approach will enable automated workflows, faster insight generation and a human-agent hybrid setup for client projects at global scale. TCS intends to use these agentic tools, such as Copilot and GitHub Copilot, within its workforce, offering personalised AI coaching to all of its employees. It will also be used to integrate AI-led automation in the Sales, Human Resources, and Finance departments. Finally, Wipro has outlined a three year strategic partnership that includes a Microsoft Innovation Hub at its Bengaluru Partner Labs and large scale upskilling in Microsoft Cloud and GitHub technologies.

​Microsoft deepens AI push in India as top IT firms deploy Copilot, agentic systems at scale

Speaking at the Microsoft AI Tour in Bengaluru on Thursday, Nadella said these four companies have emerged as "frontier firms", with each deploying more than 50,000 Microsoft Copilot licences and building "AI factories" that create industry-specific digital agents and experiences. Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella on Thursday outlined the company's next phase of artificial intelligence rollout, announcing sweeping deployments of its Copilot and agentic AI systems at India's top IT firms Tata Consultancy Services, Cognizant, Infosys and Wipro, marking a major milestone in enterprise AI adoption in the country. Speaking at the Microsoft AI Tour in Bengaluru on Thursday, Nadella said these four companies have emerged as "frontier firms", with each deploying more than 50,000 Microsoft Copilot licences and building "AI factories" that create industry-specific digital agents and experiences. "These firms are not just adopting Copilot across the enterprise, they're building deep agent factories and integrating them into customer workflows," Nadella said, adding: "They're shaping what the future of enterprise AI looks like from India." Indian ecosystem at the forefront In his remarks, Nadella said he saw "tremendous momentum" among Indian developers and large enterprises using Microsoft's AI stack creatively. Citing examples from Cognizant, Wipro, Swiggy, Persistent Systems and PhonePe, he said companies are already integrating Fabric, Foundry and Copilot Studio to reimagine software development, data intelligence and customer operations. India is on track to become Microsoft-owned GitHub platform's largest developer hub in the world, Nadella said. Microsoft, he said, views GitHub as the "agent HQ" where developers issue daily tasks to AI agents as part of their coding workflow. Infrastructure and sovereign cloud expansion Beyond software, Nadella detailed Microsoft's growing India infrastructure footprint. The company will open a new Azure data centre region in South Central India in 2026, its most sustainable facility in Asia, powered entirely by renewable energy. This investment of $17.5 billion is part of what Nadella described as Microsoft's largest in Asia, following its previous $3 billion commitment to India. He also described a "portfolio of sovereignty options" through Azure, enabling organisations to choose between public, sovereign and private cloud configurations while maintaining cybersecurity and compliance through Microsoft's new Agent 365 runtime. The system ensures observability and governance in a world of autonomous agents, Nadella said. Building the agentic enterprise Nadella used much of his address to frame Microsoft's evolving AI architecture, spanning what he called the experience layer, IQ layer and agent factory. At the top sits Microsoft 365 Copilot, now transitioning from chat-style assistance to fully agentic systems capable of handling complex tasks, from data analysis to research and operational orchestration. "Ultimately, we're not building for building's sake," Nadella said. "We're building to change outcomes, whether that's customer experience, employee experience or operational efficiency." He described a new AI-driven software lifecycle where developers begin not with specifications but with test outcomes and real world goals. "This platform shift demands a mindset shift, for builders to start with the problem, then back into the workflow," he said. Microsoft's AI stack now extends from Copilot to Copilot Studio, which lets enterprise developers create their own AI agents using natural language prompts, down to Microsoft Foundry, a toolchain for building multi-agent, multi-model solutions using over 11,000 available AI models. National skilling Reiterating Microsoft's skilling commitments, Nadella announced that the company will train 20 million people across India in AI and digital technologies. Microsoft is working with India's labour ministry to integrate AI capabilities into the eShram programme that upskills workers in the unorganised sector, he said. "This AI revolution must empower everyone, every developer, every organisation, every person," Nadella said. "Because that's how India's growth story becomes an AI growth story for the world."