Stay Cognizant

About Stay Cognizant

Stay Cognizant is a podcast for business leaders eager to find new ways to innovate as they embark on their digital transformation journey. Hosted by Pamela Axtell, Senior Director of Brand Strategy and Marketing, each episode features conversations with Cognizant leaders, partners, and clients about the most exciting innovations shaping the future of business. From AI and workforce upskilling to customer experience and responsible technology, these discussions offer practical insights you can apply today. This is the podcast about the people, ideas, and technology that will help you get ahead and stay ahead. If you're looking for actionable ideas to drive meaningful change, you've come to the right place. Welcome to Stay Cognizant.

Publisher

Cognizant Podcasts

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

21 Oct 2025

Latest episode

30 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

11 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   30 Oct 2026

   Learning in the flow of work. Adaptability and the future of entry-level hiring

   Nearly every HR leader expects entry-level jobs to become AI supervision roles within five years. Most also admit their learning programs can't keep up, which means companies are hiring for jobs nobody has been trained to do.In this episode, host Pamela Axtell is joined by Ginny Ziegler, CMO of Pearson, and Thea Hayden, CMO of Cognizant, to go through findings from their joint AI Workforce Pulse report. Both are leading AI-first overhauls of their own marketing teams. They argue that the skills once filed under "nice to have" are now the entire job, and that in an AI economy, the ability to learn is the skill that lasts. We also cover: Why AI output should be treated as a provocation, not a blueprint, and how to find where it falls short How Cognizant marketers built more than 300 working agents and prototypes in one hackathon Why careers now look more like a jungle gym than a ladder, and how to help people see their own progress

2. 

   18 Aug 2026

   Boring Is the Advantage: What Separates AI Leaders from Everyone Else

   Despite heavy investment in AI, two-thirds of senior executives can't point to measurable productivity gains and a quarter have abandoned deployments entirely. In this episode, Ollie O'Donoghue, Head of Research at Cognizant, joins to unpack findings from the Closing the Gap study — a survey of over 1,100 G2000 leaders revealing a $2.4 trillion gap between organizations getting AI right and those falling behind. The conversation explores why the maturity of an organization's tech foundation and a focused investment strategy are the two variables that separate leaders from laggards, and why "adequate" infrastructure no longer works in the age of AI. Ollie also breaks down the boardroom mindset shift underway, how different industries are faring, and the critical role external partners play in accelerating results. The takeaway: boring is cool — because without the fundamentals, you'll never get to the exciting stuff.

3. 

   21 Jul 2026

   Real Value, Real People: Accelerating Growth with Human-Centered AI

   Making AI real inside a complex enterprise isn’t a technology problem — it’s an organizational one. Ninety-two percent of enterprise leaders say their AI results don’t match their ambitions, and according to Sushant Warikoo, that gap exists because technology is only 20% of the solution.In this episode of Stay Cognizant, host Pamela Axtell is joined by Sushant Warikoo, Cognizant’s Chief Business Officer for AI, who has spent his career at the intersection of engineering, data strategy, and industry reimagination — building AI practices at Accenture and IBM long before the term was mainstream. If you want to understand how a global professional services firm is actually structuring the team, the commercial model, and the governance to turn AI investment into AI value — not bolting it on, but rewiring around it — this episode gives you a grounded, real-world view.Together, Pamela and Sushant dig into what it actually takes to move from AI pilots to enterprise-grade production: the “agentic harness” of FinOps, governance, and security controls that most organizations skip; the squad model pairing human-centered designers, industry strategists, and frontier engineers in a single unit; and the agent cost estimator that lets Cognizant price and commit to outcomes before a line of code is written. Sushant also walks through what agentic commerce looks like right now — not in five years — and makes the case that the next talent advantage won’t go to the best coders, but to the deepest domain experts.Don’t wait for the infrastructure to mature before building — the enterprises pulling ahead are the ones building the foundation and transforming processes at the same time. 🔔 Love the podcast? Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us!

4. 

   22 Jun 2026

   How AI Is Rewriting the Rules of Consumer Experience

   AI in retail, travel, and hospitality is reshaping enterprise operations at scale — but the real challenge is not the technology itself. It’s figuring out where to deploy it, how to rewire the processes around it, and how to build before the infrastructure fully matures. In this episode of Stay Cognizant, host Pamela Axtell is joined by Anup Prasad, Senior Vice President and Business Unit Head of Consumer Business, Retail, CPG, Travel & Hospitality at Cognizant, who works directly with some of the world’s most recognized brands across retail, consumer goods, travel, and hospitality — helping them build AI-powered experiences that produce real, measurable outcomes. If you want to understand how a global professional services firm is actually building AI into client operations — not bolting it on — this episode gives you a grounded, real-world view. Together, Pamela and Anup explore how agentic AI is moving from isolated pilots to rewired enterprise workflows — and why modernization and AI are one decision, not two. Anup walks through Walmart’s emerging super-agent playbook (separate agents for customers, suppliers, associates, and developers), Cognizant’s five-agent workflow for Sysco Foods that compressed credit-request processing from three to five days down to 90 seconds, and the newly announced three-way partnership with Anthropic and Travelport to bridge the gap between AI-expressed travel intent and confirmed bookings. They also dig into what it really takes to lead this kind of transformation — from picking the right workflow characteristics to designing human-in-the-loop for high-stakes decisions — and what the Pizza Hut / DragonTail $100M lawsuit reveals about the system-level thinking that separates implementations that work from ones that end in court. Don’t risk falling behind as AI moves from experimentation to enterprise standard — learn how Cognizant is already reimagining client operations, unlocking new capability, and helping industries build through uncertainty toward a certain future. 🔔 Love the podcast? Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us!

5. 

   19 May 2026

   Everyone is an AI builder now

   AI in marketing is transforming enterprise operations, but the real challenge is not the technology itself — it's how organizations build the culture, capability, and governance needed to scale AI across a global team. In this episode of Stay Cognizant, host Pamela Axtell (Senior Director, Global Brand Strategy and Marketing at Cognizant) is joined by Josh Walters (Global Marketing Strategy, Operations & Transformation Lead, Cognizant) to break down how AI is moving from individual productivity tool to full agentic transformation inside a 340-person marketing function. If you want to understand how a global enterprise marketing team is actually building AI into workflows — not bolting it on — this episode gives you a grounded, real-world view. Together, Pamela and Josh explore how Cognizant's marketing team went from giving everyone access to an LLM to building nearly 20 purpose-specific agents — including an Audience Builder that democratizes proprietary CRM data, a closed-loop research assistant trained exclusively on Cognizant's own studies, and a thought-leadership writing coach that scaled one editor's capacity from 6 consultations a week to 50 submissions a day. They also dig into what it really takes to lead this kind of transformation, from change management and skills evolution to measuring value that doesn't show up on any productivity dashboard. Don't risk falling behind as AI moves from experimentation to enterprise standard — learn how Cognizant's marketing team is already reimagining operations, unlocking new capability, and driving marketing-influenced pipeline at scale. 🔔 Love the podcast? Don't forget to subscribe and rate us!

6. 

   30 Apr 2026

   The Playbook for Responsible AI in Healthcare

   AI in healthcare is transforming enterprise operations, but the real challenge is not the technology itself—it’s how organizations build the context, trust, and governance needed to scale AI safely and effectively. In this episode of Stay Cognizant, host Pamela Axtell (Senior Director, Global Brand Strategy and Marketing at Cognizant) is joined by Lisa Hersheiser (Client Relationship Manager, Cognizant Healthcare) and Allen Fredrickson (Founder and Executive Chairman, Signature Performance) to break down how AI is moving from experimentation to enterprise-scale impact in healthcare. If you want to understand how AI is actually being applied in real healthcare systems to improve cost, speed, and patient outcomes, this episode gives you a grounded, real-world view. Together, Pamela, Lisa, and Allen explore how healthcare inefficiencies have driven administrative costs from ~10% to nearly 40% of total spend—and how AI-powered automation is reversing that trend by reducing claims processing time from weeks to days, increasing auto-adjudication rates above 90%, and improving accuracy beyond 99%. They also dig into what it really takes to scale AI responsibly in healthcare, from governance and data readiness to workflow design and cultural adoption across organizations. Don’t risk falling behind as healthcare AI moves from experimentation to enterprise standard—learn how leading organizations are already transforming operations, reducing costs, and improving patient outcomes at scale. 🔔 Love the podcast? Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us!

7. 

   24 Mar 2026

   Building AI for the Physical World

   AI is transforming enterprises, but when it moves from dashboards into factories, grids, and warehouses, the stakes—and the risks—become very real. In this episode of Stay Cognizant, host Pamela Axtell (Senior Director, Global Brand Strategy and Marketing at Cognizant) sits down with Vijay Narayan (EVP and Business Unit Head, MLEU, Cognizant) to explore how context, human judgment, and system design are essential to scaling AI safely in the physical world. Vijay breaks down why “AI with brakes, not AI limitless” is critical when AI interacts with physical assets, from storm-impacted utilities to complex manufacturing lines. He shares how Cognizant engineers context-rich AI systems, orchestrating multi-agent frameworks and digital twins that allow humans and machines to share responsibility while mitigating risk. From shadow mode testing to cognitive data fabrics, Vijay explains the processes that turn AI pilots into enterprise-scale outcomes. Together, they discuss how leading organizations amplify their unique strengths, level off inefficiencies, and cultivate a culture of continuous learning to thrive in an AI-powered future. The conversation provides a grounded, human-centered perspective on what it takes to deploy AI with trust, predictability, and real-world value. 🔔 Love the podcast? Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us!

8. 

   16 Feb 2026

   De-Fearing the Future: How AI Is Reshaping Enterprise Work Today

   AI is already reshaping enterprise work, but the real challenge isn’t the technology. It’s how organizations help people navigate fear, build relevance, and redesign work in a world where humans and AI agents operate side by side. In this episode of Stay Cognizant, host Pamela Axtell (Senior Director, Global Brand Strategy and Marketing at Cognizant) is joined by Ganesh Ayyar (President, Intuitive Operations and Automation and Industry Solutions Group at Cognizant) to explore what enterprise transformation actually looks like in the AI era. Ganesh breaks down why job cuts are a flawed response to AI disruption and why skilling must be treated as core enterprise infrastructure. He shares how leading organizations are rethinking operating models, governance, and accountability as AI moves from experimentation to scale and why context, not raw intelligence, is what unlocks real enterprise value. From managing human and digital labor together to designing systems where AI augments judgment rather than replaces it, the conversation focuses on what works in practice. Together, they examine how enterprise leaders can move from fear to agency, build adaptable career paths, and create cultures where ambiguity is expected, and navigated, as AI continues to accelerate. The result is a grounded, human-centered view of how enterprises can compete, grow, and stay relevant in an unsettled world. 🔔 Love the podcast? Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us!

9. 

   16 Dec 2025

   Scaling Intelligence: Inside the Agentic Enterprise

   Agentic AI is redefining how enterprises create value, collaborate, and compete. In this episode of Stay Cognizant, host Pamela Axtell (Senior Director, Global Brand Strategy and Marketing at Cognizant) is joined by Naveen Sharma (Naveen Sharma, SVP and Global Practice Head, Data and AI at Cognizant) and David Schubmehl (Research Vice President for AI and Automation at IDC) to explore the rise of the agentic economy, a new era where autonomous, interconnected AI agents are transforming how work gets done. Naveen and David unpack what makes this moment different from past waves of automation, how agentic systems are becoming the new “operating system” for business, and what early adopters are learning as they reimagine workflows and labor models. They share real-world examples from multi-week processes reduced to 30 minutes to enterprises scaling AI-driven decision-making across entire ecosystems and discuss how leaders can prepare their organizations for this next phase of digital transformation. Together, they examine the opportunities, challenges, and human implications of an economy powered by agents that can sense, decide, and act, setting the stage for a new era of enterprise intelligence. 🔔 Love the podcast? Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us!

10. 

    18 Nov 2025

    Context Engineering: The Hidden Differentiator in Enterprise AI

    AI is shifting from better prompts to smarter foundations and that’s where context engineering comes in. In this episode of Stay Cognizant, host Pamela Axtell is joined by Shanker Udyaver (Vice President and Global Head of Technology Consulting at Cognizant) to explore why context engineering is emerging as the real differentiator in enterprise AI adoption. Shanker explains how context engineering goes beyond prompt engineering to help enterprises embed their unique organizational knowledge into AI systems. He shares why this shift is critical for reducing hallucinations, improving reliability, and extracting real business value from AI investments. They also discuss Cognizant’s approach to scaling context with context fabric, the role of multi-agent AI systems, and the technical and ethical challenges enterprises must overcome to adopt AI responsibly. The conversation makes one thing clear: the enterprises that master context engineering will be the ones that win with AI. 🔔 Love the podcast? Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us!

11. 

    21 Oct 2025

    Cognizant’s NeuroSAN Advantage: Driving Business Impact with Open-Source AI

    Open-source AI is redefining how enterprises innovate, scale, and collaborate. In this episode of Stay Cognizant, host, Pamela Axtell, is joined by Babak Hodjat (Chief AI Officer at Cognizant) and Dan Fink (AVP, Software Architect at Cognizant AI Labs) to explore the launch of NeuroSAN, Cognizant’s open-source, multi-agent AI accelerator. Babak and Dan unpack how NeuroSAN enables organizations to build interoperable, scalable AI systems that connect hundreds of agents, balance privacy and security, and empower non-coders to experiment in natural language. They reveal how an internal project that once required a year of human labor was completed in a single day using NeuroSAN—and why open ecosystems like this could become the “Linux” of enterprise AI. Together, they discuss the business case for open-source adoption, the engineering trade-offs of multi-agent systems, and what it will take to build trust and responsible AI practices as companies move from pilots to full-scale deployment. 🔔 Love the podcast? Don’t forget to subscribe and rate us!

Contact Stay Cognizant

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.