Interview #62 - Babak Hodjat, CTO of AI at Cognizant

Join Babak Hodjat, CTO of AI at Cognizant, as he discusses two major AI developments. Hodjat explains how DeepSeek, an open-source model from China, disrupted the AI landscape with unprecedented efficiency—running 14B parameter models on consumer hardware while achieving performance comparable to much larger models, which temporarily impacted AI-related stocks. We then explore multi-agent systems, which transform large language models into agents by enabling them to use tools and execute actions in the world rather than just generating text. These agent systems can coordinate with each other in natural language, operate autonomously within defined boundaries, and collaborate to solve complex tasks while maintaining human oversight.