Senior AI Business Strategist

About the role

The Senior AI Strategist plays a pivotal role in shaping Cognizant’s AI portfolio by designing high-impact AI offerings, building compelling value propositions, and driving offering readiness across the AI Market Unit.

Responsibilities

• Offering Strategy & Design
• Lead the design and development of AI-led offerings by synthesizing market signals, competitive intelligence, industry trends, and client demand into structured, commercially viable propositions.
• Define offering roadmaps and prioritization tiers (Launch Ready, In Progress, Early Stage) to guide investment decisions and resource allocation across the AI portfolio.
• Build business cases and value narratives that quantify the impact of AI offerings for target industries (banking, healthcare payer, life sciences, and beyond).
• Own the offering bill of materials—ensuring each offering has clearly defined scope, differentiators, delivery model, pricing guidance, and proof points.
• Offering Leadership
• Lead offering discussions and workshops across Cognizant service lines, industry verticals, and technology teams to align on offering positioning, scope, and go-to-market approach.
• Partner with offering leads and subject matter experts to translate technical AI capabilities into business-oriented value propositions that resonate with industry buyers.
• Coordinate with industry teams to ensure offerings are tailored to vertical-specific pain points, regulatory contexts, and competitive dynamics.
• Drive stakeholder alignment across multiple functions—bridging the gap between engineering, delivery, industry, and commercial teams to move offerings from concept to market.
• Facilitate prioritization and trade-off discussions with senior leadership, using data-driven frameworks to support portfolio investment decisions.
• Client Enablement & Presentation Support
• Develop executive-ready offering decks, one-pagers, battlecards, and presentation materials that articulate AI offering value in client-facing contexts.
• Support account and industry teams in preparing for client meetings by tailoring offering narratives to specific client challenges and industry contexts.
• Present AI offerings to clients alongside account teams and offering leads when needed, articulating differentiation and business impact with clarity.
• Pressure-test offering assumptions and AI-generated insights using critical judgment, domain knowledge, and rigorous analysis before they reach clients.
• Thought Leadership & Market Intelligence
• Create thought leadership assets—white papers, point-of-view documents, industry briefs—that establish Cognizant’s position as a leading AI strategy advisor.
• Monitor and synthesize emerging AI trends, competitive moves, and regulatory developments to inform offering strategy and portfolio direction.
• Contribute to internal knowledge capital by codifying frameworks, methodologies, and reusable IP that accelerate future offering development.
• Build and maintain a competitive intelligence view of how peers (Accenture, Deloitte, IBM, Capgemini) are positioning their AI offerings.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in strategy consulting, technology strategy, AI/digital advisory, or offering/product strategy at a consulting firm, professional services organization, or technology company.
• Demonstrated experience designing and developing technology or AI offerings, including defining value propositions, building business cases, and creating go-to-market materials.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional discussions and drive alignment across diverse stakeholder groups (engineering, delivery, industry, commercial).
• Strong analytical skills with experience conducting market assessments, competitive analysis, and quantitative modeling to inform strategic decisions.
• Track record of developing executive-ready presentations, offering decks, and thought leadership content for senior audiences.
• Excellent communication and facilitation skills—able to synthesize complex technical concepts into clear business narratives.
• 3+ years of experience managing or mentoring team members and structuring analytical workstreams.
• Bachelor’s degree required.

What Will Help You Stand Out

• MBA or equivalent graduate degree from a top-tier program.
• Prior experience at a Big 4, MBB, or Tier 1 technology strategy or offering development practice.
• Deep domain expertise in one or more priority industries: banking & capital markets, healthcare payer, or life sciences.
• Experience with GTM strategy, offering launch, or product management in a B2B enterprise context.
• Exposure to hyperscaler ecosystems (AWS, Azure, GCP) and AI platform partner models.
• Track record of published thought leadership (articles, speaking engagements, industry reports).
• Ability to evaluate AI-generated outputs critically, with an understanding of data limitations, model risk, and bias.
• Familiarity with offering lifecycle frameworks, RACI models, and portfolio prioritization methodologies.