Cognizant reported second-quarter revenue of $5.48 billion, up 4.5% YoY, driven by strong demand in financial services and healthy deal momentum.
The company expanded its AI partnerships and products during the quarter while maintaining steady operating margins despite a challenging macroeconomic environment.
Cognizant also reported a decline in headcount and reaffirmed confidence in its AI-led growth strategy.
IT services firm Cognizant reported second-quarter revenue of $5.48 billion, up 4.5% year-on-year (YoY), helped by healthy deal momentum and continued demand from financial services clients despite a mixed macroeconomic environment.
According to the company's quarterly earnings announcement, revenue grew 4.1% in constant currency, landing at the upper end of its guidance and in line with Wall Street estimates. Operating margin improved to 15.9% from a year earlier, while adjusted operating margin stood at 16%.
4 July 2026
Get the latest issue of Outlook Business
Net income, however, slipped slightly to $636 million from $645 million in the same quarter last year.
AI Strategy, Financial Services Drive Growth
Cognizant said it continued to strengthen its artificial intelligence (AI) portfolio by expanding partnerships with companies including Anthropic, Google Cloud, OpenAI, Snowflake, ServiceNow, Rubrik and CrowdStrike. It also launched new AI products and said it plans to scale its Frontier-certified workforce to 5,000 engineers and 10,000 business operators.
"Our organic revenue growth momentum continued in the second quarter and was at the high end of our expectations," Chief Executive Officer Ravi Kumar S said.
He added that Cognizant is helping clients move from AI experimentation to enterprise-wide adoption by combining industry expertise with engineering, infrastructure and data capabilities. "We believe the market opportunity ahead is larger than ever, and we're positioning Cognizant to lead in this next era," he said.
Advertisement
Bookings Stay Strong, Headcount Declines
The company reported $29.1 billion in trailing 12-month bookings, up 5% YoY, resulting in a 1.3x book-to-bill ratio. However, quarterly bookings declined 6% from a year earlier. Cognizant signed seven large deals during the quarter but did not announce any mega deals.
Among business segments, Financial Services remained the strongest performer with 12% YoY growth, while Health Sciences grew 1.4%. Products and Resources rose 1.2%, and Communications, Media and Technology increased 1.5%.
Chief Financial Officer Jatin Dalal said the company delivered resilient results despite a complex environment and remained focused on expanding margins while continuing to invest in growth.
Advertisement
During the first half of 2026, Cognizant deployed $1.6 billion towards share buybacks and $1.3 billion on acquisitions aligned with its AI strategy. Meanwhile, the company's headcount fell by around 900 employees sequentially to 356,700, while voluntary attrition increased to 13% from 12.3% in the previous quarter.
