Cognizant, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and Wipro have announced plans to deploy more than 200,000 Microsoft Copilot licenses in their enterprises – over 50,000 per company – in what Microsoft is calling a new benchmark for enterprise-scale adoption of generative AI.
The companies involved are framing the move as the implementation of a default tool for hundreds of thousands of employees involved in consulting, delivery, operations, and software.
The announcement, made in Bengaluru, December 11, was timed to coincide with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s visit to India. There, and across the industrialised world, there’s been growing momentum for agentic AI – AI systems that do more than chat, executing multi-step work in business processes. The four firms want to be seen as AI advisors for clients, with extensive experience drawn from their internal rollouts of AI.
Why enterprises care about Copilot
Readers will be familiar with Microsoft 365 Copilot, the AI assistant embedded in standard workplace tools Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. It’s intended to help users draft, summarise, and analyse, turning natural-language queries into work-related outputs. Copilot combines large language models with Microsoft 365 apps and organisational data gained from Microsoft Graph, with the assistant working in the context of a user’s files, meetings, and messages. This ability is, of course, subject to access controls already in place and defined by the organisation.
For large organisations, the embedding of AI into workflows is important. A firm shouldn’t have to rebuild its toolchain to experiment with AI, but rather start using AI in the software and documents its workforce already uses.
The raft of benefits is practical and work-focused: faster documentation, quicker meeting follow-ups, faster draft proposals, better discovery of information from internal knowledge repositories, and, with agentic AI, the automation of repetitive tasks.
From Copilots to frontier firms and agents
Microsoft uses the term “Frontier Firms” to describe organisations that are “human-led and agent-operated”; where employees work alongside AI assistants and specialised agents that take on work processes.
The designation of ‘Frontier Firm’ status aligns with Microsoft’s messaging at Microsoft Ignite 2025, where the company described agents reinventing business processes and amplifying impact through human-agent teamwork.
In very simple terms, the company’s pitch is to move from “AI helps you write” to “AI helps run workflows.”
Why IT services firms are making public commitments
There are two reasons why the four firms are rolling out the technology at such a large scale. First, to improve internal productivity. The Times of India reports the deployments are intended to integrate Copilot into workflows in consulting, software development, operations and client delivery, with the aim of improved productivity.
At large multinational companies, margins depend on delivery efficiency and knowledge reuse, so shaving minutes from everyday tasks for tens of thousands of workers produces meaningful gains.
Second, client credibility. The consultancy companies serve global enterprises, including many Fortune 500 clients, which means their internal operating model can, and perhaps should, become their clients’ playbooks.
If consultancies can demonstrate mature governance, training, and measurable outcomes with Copilot at scale in their own operations, it strengthens their messaging, better able to sell similar transformations to potential and existing clients.
Hyperscalers’ investment in India
The Copilot announcement came immediately after Microsoft said it would invest $17.5 billion in India between 2026-2029, money destined for cloud and AI infrastructure, skilling, and operations. The company describes this as its largest investment in Asia to date. Other major tech firms are making parallels: Reuters reported in December 2025 that Amazon/AWS planned to invest over $35 billion in India by 2030, expanding its operations and AI capabilities, for example.
Together, such moves underscore India’s growing position as a massive enterprise market and strategic hub for AI talent and cloud infrastructure. For India’s IT services leaders, Copilot is being positioned as a way to stay ahead of the competitive curve and define “AI-first delivery.”
(Image source: “Gobbling Indian view of Clinch River” by dmott9 is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.)
Want to learn more about AI and big data from industry leaders? Check out AI & Big Data Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is part of TechEx and co-located with other leading technology events. Click here for more information.
AI News is powered by TechForge Media. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars here.
