Cognizant recently announced an expanded strategic alliance with CrowdStrike to secure enterprise artificial intelligence across its lifecycle, targeting the specific vulnerabilities created by autonomous AI agents, models, and foundational infrastructure. The initiative addresses a widening attack surface as organizations deploy autonomous AI at scale across operations, IT, and core business processes. This expansion builds on a partnership established in 2025 and follows Cognizant being named CrowdStrike's 2026 Americas Velocity Partner of the Year.
The collaboration integrates the CrowdStrike Falcon platform into Cognizant's AI Factory and its Managed Cybersecurity Services, which are orchestrated through the Cognizant Neuro Cybersecurity platform. This integration brings AI-native managed security operations, including Charlotte AI and CrowdStrike's Agentic Security Workforce, into Cognizant's delivery operations. The platform introduces Falcon AI Detection and Response to protect prompt and agent interaction layers while utilizing shadow AI detection to track unauthorized models and tools.
For regulated sectors such as financial services, healthcare, and government, the alliance extends security to private, sovereign AI infrastructure. Cognizant's private AI Factory deployments host on-premises AI infrastructure within a client's own data center, using the CrowdStrike Falcon platform to protect the underlying compute, containers, and data pipelines. These capabilities operate within client-defined governance, risk, and compliance frameworks to keep AI applications within defined security boundaries.
The strategic rollouts prioritize operational security as companies transition autonomous AI into production. Surya Gummadi, President of Americas at Cognizant, stated that "an unsecured AI agent isn't a productivity gain, it's an open door." Daniel Bernard, Chief Business Officer at CrowdStrike, added that the future enterprise will be powered by AI agents, noting that "the challenge isn't building them, it's securing them."