Cognizant actively implements 'token metering'; tracks each associate’s personal AI fluency

Bengaluru: Nasdaq-listed IT services company Cognizant is beginning to see the emergence of AI-infused rate cards, where pricing reflects a blended model of human effort and digital effort.

During the company's earnings call, Ravi Kumar S, Chief Executive Officer, said that with several clients, they are exposing tokenised rate cards that price work along a continuum from fully human-led discovery to hybrid to increasingly autonomous agentic delivery.

"This model is intended to turn our outcome-based economics into true partnership that aligns value creation with shared results," he said.

The IT services firm is increasingly applying token metering at a project or individual level to provide early insights into usage patterns, model management, and optimisation of inference costs.

Token metering is a reality both at a project level and at an individual level. We have token metering for fixed-price programmes as well as for time and material. For fixed-price programmes, we have the opportunity to reduce the cost and keep the margin with us, the CEO said.

To fuel the shift from the traditional pyramid towards interdisciplinary AI-augmented teams, the company has launched an integrated AI skilling stack for its entire organisation.

"It begins with our AI builder career programme, which maps every role at Cognizant to a future-ready AI family – job family with defined pathways and targeted learning plans aligned to how work is evolving. This is powered by Cognizant Skillspring, our new AI-native learning platform designed to redefine learning in the AI era and cultivate AI-ready talent at scale for our associates and our clients," the CEO said.

The company now tracks progress for each associate's personal AI fluency dashboard, a real-time, context-engineered view of AI readiness across various dimensions, including AI skills and proficiency, training and certification, AI tools and token usage, innovation, and project experience.

Cognizant has introduced Project Leap and the CEO in the analyst call said the programme is designed to accelerate the company's transformation to the operating model of the future by funding investments in AI capabilities and partnerships, integrated offerings and platforms, reshaping productivity, and upskilling workforce.

The CEO also said that they are ahead of the curve, both to take the accountability of digital and human labour for “ourselves or if clients want to take the accountability for themselves.”

“Time and material comes in two forms: I could take care of digital labour and human labour, and I could take the sizing and the economics of digital labour and create throughput for our clients. This is something evolving, and some clients are already proposing this,” he added.