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Cognizant and CrowdStrike: A Strategic Alliance for AI Security

Cognizant Technology Solutions, headquartered in New Jersey, USA, has recently unveiled an expansion of its partnership with CrowdStrike. This collaboration aims to bolster security measures for enterprises navigating the complexities of AI integration. Since the inception of their partnership in 2025, the two companies have worked diligently to develop managed cybersecurity services leveraging CrowdStrike’s Falcon® platform, integrated with Cognizant’s AI Factory and Neuro® Cybersecurity platform. This integration supports organizations throughout the entire AI lifecycle, from AI agents and models to the underlying infrastructure.

The announcement comes at a pivotal moment in the enterprise AI landscape. Companies are no longer contemplating whether to incorporate autonomous AI agents; they are fully embracing their deployment across operational, IT, and core business processes. The environments where these AI implementations occur are now diverse, spanning public clouds, private clouds, and edge settings. Unfortunately, as their attack surfaces expand, traditional security tools are proving inadequate. Attackers are increasingly utilizing AI to enhance their methods, exploiting unauthorized 'shadow AI', manipulating models via prompt injection, and aiming for new entry points created through agent-based architectures. Consequently, security has emerged as a critical factor determining whether enterprises can confidently scale AI deployments or if they will be impeded by risks.

Surya Gmadi, President of Cognizant's Americas division, emphasizes the importance of secure AI, stating, "The AI Builder aims to transition enterprises from trial and error to value creation in their AI implementations. To enable large-scale deployments, ensuring that AI is secure from the design phase is essential. An unsecured AI agent can pose new risks rather than enhance productivity. By combining the CrowdStrike Falcon platform with our AI Factory and Neuro Cybersecurity platforms, customers can construct, operate, and safeguard autonomous AI across all levels, meeting the reliability and governance expectations demanded by boards, regulators, and clients alike."

Cognizant's AI Builder approach focuses on harnessing AI in vital business areas and embedding advanced AI agents within workflows that support enterprises. Achieving this at scale necessitates the assurance of AI security, governance, and trustworthiness. The partnership strives to realize these objectives through three primary domains:

1. AI-Native Managed Security Operations: Cognizant integrates the CrowdStrike Falcon® platform—comprising features like Charlotte AI™, Agentic Security Workforce, and Falcon® Next-Gen SIEM—into its managed cybersecurity services. Through the Cognizant Neuro® Cybersecurity platform, these services will operate in a unified manner. Consequently, always-on AI agents will enhance security operations by aiding in alert triage, threat intelligence, vulnerability prioritization, and data onboarding, all under the guidance of Cognizant’s security architects.

2. Security and Governance Across the AI Factory: Within the Cognizant AI Factory, CrowdStrike Falcon® capabilities will support a governance layer designed to ensure AI agents and applications function according to established security and compliance requirements. The Falcon® AI Detection and Response (AIDR) will assist in safeguarding the interaction layer between prompts and AI agents. Moreover, model scanning and shadow AI detection will provide customers with visibility over all models, tools, and AI agents utilized in their environments, complying with the governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) frameworks they set forth.

3. Security Layer for Private and Sovereign AI: Tailored to regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare, and government, Cognizant’s Private AI Factory aims to provide on-premises AI infrastructures compliant with sovereign AI within customers’ data centers. The CrowdStrike Falcon® platform will function as a security layer that protects the entire environment, offering integrated protection for compute environments, containers, and data pipelines supporting private models.

These initiatives are built upon Cognizant's recognition as "2026 Americas Velocity Partner of the Year" by CrowdStrike. This accolade acknowledges Cognizant's ability to generate tangible business outcomes and quick market deployment in collaboration with CrowdStrike.

Daniel Bernard, the Chief Business Officer of CrowdStrike, stresses the need for secure operation of AI agents, asserting, "The challenge is not building AI agents but ensuring their safe operation. CrowdStrike and Cognizant are committed to providing an ecosystem where every AI agent and model is protected by the Falcon platform, enabling enterprises to transition from experimental stages to large-scale deployments with confidence. This assists companies in accelerating innovation while safely rolling out AI, effectively mitigating security risks associated with the AI era."

Ultimately, Cognizant and CrowdStrike are dedicated to enabling enterprises to confidently adopt and deploy autonomous AI, ensuring that all AI agents, models, and their interactions are safeguarded and well-managed within resilient environments.

About Cognizant

Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) serves as a technology service provider focused on building comprehensive AI solutions that bridge AI investments with enterprise value. By leveraging deep expertise in industry, business processes, and engineering, Cognizant integrates organizations' unique business environments with technological systems. This allows them to maximize human potential, deliver assured outcomes, and support global companies in staying a step ahead in a rapidly changing world. For more information, visit www.cognizant.ai or follow @cognizant.