Cognida.ai is a technology consulting and software engineering company that provides practical and scalable artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for enterprises. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Cognida.ai founder and CEO Feroze Mohammed to gain a deeper understanding of the company.
Feroze Mohammed’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Mohammed said:
“My journey to founding Cognida.ai has been shaped by a passion for innovation, strategy, and execution. With over two decades of experience in navigating high-stakes mergers, building elite technology teams across continents, scaling technology businesses and driving AI adoption at an enterprise scale building AI-driven solutions, I’ve focused on turning complex challenges into opportunities.”
“I earned my MCA in Computer Science from the University of Hyderabad and later enhanced my leadership capabilities through executive education at the Indian School of Business and Wharton.”
“I directed the Digital Solutions Business Unit and oversaw Hitachi Consulting’s worldwide P&L across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC regions as Chief Operating Officer at Hitachi Vantara prior to founding Cognida.ai in 2022. I oversaw teams of more than 4,500 individuals during this time, developing outstanding technology teams across continents and handling high-stakes mergers.”
“I led product development, large-scale integrations, and emerging markets expansion for Sierra Atlantic for almost 16 years before that. With more than 1,200 team members, I oversaw global delivery for their main business unit. Building technology that produces quantifiable business results has always been a passion of mine.”
What excites me most is the intersection of AI, business transformation, and execution. What drives me today at Cognida.ai is the opportunity to democratize AI for enterprises. Through my experiences, I’ve seen firsthand how enterprises struggle with AI implementation. While they invest heavily in AI capabilities, they often fail to translate that investment into tangible business results.
This challenge – bridging the gap between AI’s promise and practical reality – is what inspired us to build Cognida.ai as a different kind of AI company, one focused on making AI implementation practical, scalable, and profitable for enterprises worldwide.
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Mohammed shared:
“We started our adventure with Cognida.ai because of a straightforward observation that kept coming up in our discussions with business executives. Despite the fact that everyone was investing in AI, the majority were trapped in what I refer to as “pilot purgatory.” The difficulty was in implementation, not the algorithms themselves.”
“The startling fact that only 20% of businesses successfully implement AI solutions into production, despite 87% of them investing in technology, really got to me. This was more than simply a figure; it was the sum of unrealized potential and billions of dollars in lost investment.”
“Our founding team’s goal of making AI implementation feasible and lucrative for businesses gave rise to the concept for Cognida.ai. As CEO, it is my responsibility to advance this vision by ensuring that our AI solutions work well in current corporate settings and produce quantifiable results in weeks rather than months. This entails cultivating an innovative, cooperative, and customer-focused culture. With more than 40 businesses using our solutions on a large scale, we are demonstrating that, with the right strategy, AI adoption can be predictable, useful, and lucrative.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Mohammed reflected:
“Witnessing our teams collaborate to innovate in the face of unproven technologies and techniques to produce a crucial customer project that surpassed client expectations is one of the most fulfilling experiences. In just 12 weeks, one significant manufacturing client increased forecast accuracy by 45%. These moments, when our efforts influence actual issues and garner gratitude from our partners and clients, are incredibly fulfilling. It reaffirms our dedication to mutual success and the importance of teamwork.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Mohammed explained:
“Making AI function in the real world—where it matters most for businesses—is our main goal at Cognida.ai. In three crucial areas, our Practical AI solutions produce observable results:
- We provide solutions that make a significant difference when businesses require revenue growth, such as automated quotation creation that operates five times faster, demand forecasting that is 45% more accurate, and predictive models that identify client attrition before it occurs.
- We are assisting businesses with operational excellence by automating over 25,000 invoices every day, streamlining contract procedures, and optimizing capacity to cut operating expenses by 40%.
- To promote smooth interactions, we’re automating onboarding, improving prediction accuracy, and developing intelligent agents for customer experience.
It is our Zunō Accelerator platform that enables this. It’s the outcome of years of arduous experience applying AI on a large scale; it’s not magic. We produce quantifiable results in 10–12 weeks, whilst traditional methodologies keep firms waiting 6–8 months for implementation.
The distinction lies in our Practical approach to AI, which prioritizes commercial impact over algorithmic solutions.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Mohammed and the team face in building the company? Mohammed acknowledged:
“We are tackling a practical problem, not a technological one. Businesses are having trouble putting AI into practice, not the idea. I have personally witnessed the 80% failure rate of AI initiatives to reach production. These reflect actual teams, actual finances, and actual lost opportunities; they are more than simply statistics.”
“By creating a co-creation strategy that combines our domain knowledge from our customers with our AI capabilities, we have directly addressed this issue. Long consulting engagements that end in nothing are not something we believe in. Rather, we collaborate with our clients to solve actual issues and produce quantifiable outcomes in a matter of weeks rather than months.”
“Along the way, we have assisted businesses in overcoming three significant obstacles to the adoption of AI:
- Data Readiness: From day one, we unleash value by integrating with current systems.
- Scalability: Solutions that scale across business functions are guaranteed by our Zunō platform. ● Complexity of Integration: We prioritize smooth adoption without interfering with workflows.
This Hybrid Practical AI approach was developed by the implementation of more than 40 enterprise solutions that have a genuine commercial impact, not from a textbook. And that’s only the beginning.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Mohammed noted:
“Our technology has developed by real-world use rather than theory. Since the beginning, we have concentrated on bridging the gap between technical potential and business realities, which is known as the “last mile” problem of implementing AI.”
“Our Zunō platform has undergone substantial development, cutting the time required to apply AI from the conventional 6–8 months to just 10–12 weeks. This wasn’t an overnight success; rather, it was the result of constant improvement based on practical applications. We are now making significant investments in predictive analytics, automation technologies that improve operational efficiency, and advanced AI agents that help optimize processes and decision-making.”
“Because we’ve discovered that context is important, we’ve extended our pre-built industry solutions to include manufacturing, healthcare, finance, and technology. A factory AI forecasting solution is not the same as a retail one. Every solution in our portfolio has been influenced by real-world applications and client input.”
“Our experience has confirmed our initial belief that successful AI is about consistently producing meaningful business outcomes rather than the most sophisticated algorithms.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Mohammed cited:
“I’m immensely appreciative of the accomplishments we’ve made, all of which were made possible by our incredible team, partners, and clients who shared our vision.
- An important turning point in our journey has been reached with our recent $15 million Series A fundraising from Nexus Venture Partners. This is more than just funding; it’s confirmation of our realistic strategy for implementing enterprise AI.
- In retrospect, we have had the good fortune to expand to serve more than 40 enterprise clients in six industry verticals, assemble an outstanding team of more than 250 AI experts in North America and Asia, and create more than 30 valuable industry-specific solutions.
What I’m most proud of isn’t the growth numbers – it’s consistently helping enterprises reduce AI implementation time from the industry standard of 6-8 months to just 10-12 weeks. Every successful deployment signifies a team that is no longer mired in never-ending pilots but is now producing value.
These achievements serve as fuel for our objective to make AI implementation feasible and lucrative for businesses globally, not as endpoints. We have only just begun.”
Customer Success Stories
When asking Mohammed about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“The stories that energize our team aren’t about technology – they’re about the tangible impact we’re making for businesses.”
“I consider the industrial client who, in just 12 weeks, increased prediction accuracy by 45% while cutting waste and managing SKU-level inventory levels. Or the group that used AI-powered solutions to generate quotes five times faster and generate over $10 million in new income.”
“The worldwide supply chain organization that is currently automating over 25,000 invoices per day and reducing processing time by 70% is an inspiration to me. Additionally, the healthcare provider improved patient care while cutting operational costs by 40%.”
“These are real people using practical AI to solve real-world problems, not just hypothetical use cases.”
“‘Cognida.ai has proven to be our trusted partner with their practical approach to AI implementation,’ as our client A. Vinod, CIO of Clopay, so kindly stated. Along with their extensive knowledge of AI, they also have a solid grasp of business procedures, data integration, and industrial operations.”
“Such remarks serve as a reminder of our motivations, which are to develop practical AI solutions with quantifiable effects rather than to develop AI for its own sake.”
Funding
When asking Mohammed about the company’s funding details, he revealed:
“Our recent $15 million Series A funding round, headed by Nexus Venture Partners, has humbled and inspired us. Nexus shares our aim for making AI implementation feasible and has a thorough understanding of the enterprise AI ecosystem, which makes our relationship unique.”
“This investment serves as fuel for future developments rather than merely confirming what we have already established. By increasing our solution library across important industries, improving our Zunō agentic AI platform, developing our implementation teams, and quickening our go-to-market strategy, we are utilizing these resources to expedite our tried-and-true implementation process.”
“The most satisfying part is that we were able to demonstrate our strategy through more than 40 successful enterprise deployments before receiving this funding. Proven results are more important than potential.”
“I’m immensely appreciative of our team for making this happen, our clients for entrusting us with their problems, and our Nexus partners for believing in our vision for large-scale, practical AI implementation.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Mohammed assessed:
“Because AI is widely applicable across industries, our target market is vast. Our goal is to develop solutions that address certain business demands to gain a sizable portion of this market. There is a lot of room for expansion, and we are dedicated to reaching a wider audience while upholding our values of impact and quality towards making practical AI for the Enterprise.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Mohammed affirmed:
“What truly differentiates us isn’t just technology – it’s our fundamental approach to AI implementation.
While many focus on algorithms, we focus on outcomes. Our Hybrid Practical AI approach cuts implementation time from 6-8 months to just 10-12 weeks while delivering measurable results. This isn’t a marketing claim – it’s the result of over 30 enterprise implementations.
Three things make this possible:
- First, our Zunō Agentic Platform combines industry-specific templates with pre-built solutions that work with existing systems. We built this based on actual implementations, not theory
- Second, we bring deep expertise in manufacturing, healthcare, and finance – not just technical capabilities. Our team understands the business processes, ecosystem, and challenges specific to these industries. This ensures our solutions deliver practical business outcomes, not just impressive demos.
- Third, our co-creation approach means we work alongside customers, combining our AI expertise with their domain knowledge. This isn’t about long consulting engagements – it’s about delivering measurable results quickly.
The difference is simple: we’re not experimenting with AI – we’re implementing it. And that’s making all the difference for our customers.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the future company goals? Mohammed emphasized:
“Our goal is to make AI deployment feasible and profitable for businesses all around the world, and our $15 million Series A is more than just capital. This collaboration with Nexus Venture Partners is helping us accelerate our goal in a number of important areas. Although ambitious, our aims are based on our mission. In order to satisfy changing business needs, we intend to keep coming up with new ideas and growing our product line. Increasing our AI research, fortifying our alliances, and making sure that our solutions stay at the forefront of technical developments are some of our primary goals. Our goal is to enable companies everywhere to fully utilize AI for significant impact.”
“We’re not just building AI tools—we’re building AI solutions that work. This investment fuels our mission: making AI implementation practical and profitable for enterprises. Because ultimately, the true value of AI lies not in its potential, but in its practical implementation.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Mohammed concluded:
“The field of enterprise AI is reaching a turning point. ‘What can AI do?’ is giving way to ‘How can we apply AI effectively?’ This is the start of the practical era of AI, where business effect, rather than technological sophistication, will determine success.
Only 20% of businesses successfully put AI solutions into production, despite 87% of them investing in the technology. For firms that can successfully close the gap between goal and achievement, this gap offers a huge opportunity.
I have a simple message for business executives: Quit experimenting. Get the execution going. AI ought to be a fundamental enterprise function that provides value on a daily basis rather than being in innovation laboratories. The route to a successful AI deployment is straightforward:
- Pay attention to results rather than simply models.
- Include AI in current processes.
- Use actual business impact to gauge success.
Delivering solutions that function in the real world and add value for clients, staff, and shareholders is more important than designing flawless algorithms.
Being on this path with incredible clients, partners, and team members who share our goal for large-scale, real-world AI applications is an honor. By working together, we’re demonstrating that the adoption of AI can be economic, practical, and predictable.”
