Cognizant is taking the lead in integrating artificial intelligence into healthcare administration by allowing AI agents to communicate directly with its TriZetto Unify system. This initial implementation will be with Electronic Prior Authorization. This initiative aims to eliminate any bottlenecks in patient care by automating tedious and time-consuming paperwork Though the responsibility for the clinical decision will remain with the humans.
This new feature is based on a headless API concept that enables AI agents to operate as the main users of the platform, utilizing services without the need for conventional user interfaces. This release comes after Cognizant’s previous introduction of AI-based applications like TriZetto Assistant and Autonomous Workflow Agents, and is a major move towards the wider adoption of AI in healthcare processes.
“This is the first move in opening our healthcare platforms to a new kind of consumer,” said Prasad Sankaran, President, Cognizant AI Products and Platforms. “AI agents are increasingly joining human users in enterprise workflows, and for regulated industries like healthcare, that requires a platform that is policy-governed, auditable and built on industry-standard healthcare interoperability protocols. Every future solution built on the TriZetto Unify platform strategy will treat agents as first-tier consumers from the start.”
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Prior authorization continues to be a significant stumbling block throughout the U.S. health care system. It frequently causes treatment delays for patients and raises the work load on providers. Cognizant’s goal is to give healthcare professionals more time for engaging in patient-centric activities by allowing AI assistants to take care of routine tasks like figuring out if authorization is needed, what documents are required and making the authorization request.
Surya Gummadi President Cognizant Americas, said that healthcare is always a huge challenge for any society. Firstly, we need a highly qualified healthcare workforce to deliver quality healthcare services. Secondly, we need to keep the cost of healthcare affordable for the people who need it the most. AI agents, he added, may be used for repetitive administrative work but will always be subject to human oversight.
The new Electronic Prior Authorization solution incorporates industry-standard HL7 FHIR APIs and supports emerging AI integration standards, including the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Cognizant plans to extend agent-ready capabilities across the broader TriZetto Unify portfolio over the next year.
Supporting more than 200 million healthcare members and processing over $500 billion in annual healthcare transactions, TriZetto’s platform is positioned to help healthcare organizations move from AI experimentation to practical, large-scale deployment that improves efficiency and accelerates patient access to care.