Dive Brief:

• Professional services company Cognizant plans to add 25,000 U.S. workers in five years to its existing workforce of 260,000 employees, according to ZDNet. Retaining employees through continual training programs makes Cognizant's workforce attractive to its competitors, according to CEO Francisco D'Souza.

• With revenue increasing up to $14.8 billion, the company on-boarded 3,900 new hires in Q4, according to its Q4 and FY 2017 earnings reported Wednesday, according to ZDNet. Last year, the company retrained about 100,000 employees for digital skills and plans to continue, reports ZDNet.

• The company also plans to allot $100 million to the Cognizant U.S. Foundation for science, technology, engineering and math education in 2018, according to the company's earnings report. The purpose of the foundation is to focus attention on developing skills in employees and students.

Dive Insight:

By 2026, about 1.4 million U.S. jobs will be disrupted as a result of emerging technologies and socio-economic conditions. Only about 2% of the current workforce are equipped with the ability to successful transition to another job that would accommodate their existing skill set.

Nearly one-fifth of the workforce will not have the ability to transfer their skills causing alarm for the emerging "reskilling crisis." To combat a workforce with non-transferable skills, crating a hybrid of collaboration, critical thinking and subject matter expertise is crucial.

However, if digital solutions like AI take over jobs, nearly half of employees will turn to their employer for onsite job training or training from a new employer. Employees already see the disruption taking place and, due to the increased cost of labor, transitioning to a digital workforce "just makes sense."

Still, employers hold an economic and debatably ethical responsibility for the employees they replace with digital solutions.