Synechron teams with Cognition to bring Devin into banks

Synechron has formed a strategic partnership with AI coding agent developer Cognition to bring Cognition's autonomous software engineer product, Devin, into Synechron's delivery work for global financial institutions.

The firms are positioning the deal around modernising critical banking and insurance software. Synechron works with large financial services groups on technology change programmes, while Cognition builds AI agents that can carry out parts of the software engineering lifecycle.

Under the arrangement, Synechron will offer Devin through its services, focusing on modernising existing platforms within the security and governance frameworks used by financial institutions.

Synechron says it has delivered solutions to a majority of the world's largest banks and plans to combine its engineers with AI agents that can work across large codebases. The approach is aimed at tasks such as system upgrades, code refactoring, and testing.

Devin In Delivery

Cognition describes Devin as an autonomous AI software engineer. The partnership centres on embedding it into Synechron's delivery model, including work led through Synechron Labs, the company's R&D and product acceleration unit.

Synechron says joint R&D with Cognition showed Devin completed upgrades faster, reduced engineering effort, and improved testing results. It characterised the outcome as productivity and quality gains based on its internal evaluation.

"Our clients want proven, reliable ways to accelerate their development work," said Mihir Shah, president of Synechron. "Through Synechron Labs, we've already seen strong results across system upgrades and migration projects. By combining our domain expertise with Cognition's AI capabilities, we're giving financial institutions a more dependable way to modernize their technology."

Financial services firms have invested heavily in automation in recent years, including tools for software engineering and IT operations. Adoption is shaped by regulatory expectations, data handling requirements, and internal controls around change management.

The partnership document highlights common use cases in large financial institutions, including Java upgrades and work involving mainframe and statistical programming environments. It cites COBOL modernisation and SAS-to-PySpark migrations as potential pilot areas.

Training And Governance

The offering will include engineers trained and certified by Cognition, with training framed around responsible use and alignment with financial industry governance standards.

Synechron also plans to integrate Devin with its existing accelerators, which are intended to streamline parts of modernisation programmes, including legacy system handling and large-scale refactoring.

The companies also plan joint go-to-market activity, including enterprise pilots designed to move AI engineering from experimentation to operational use inside modernisation programmes.

Gardner Johnson, Cognition's global VP of partnerships, said the partnership focuses on operating change in engineering organisations rather than narrow productivity measures.

"Enterprises don't just need productivity gains; they need a new operating model for engineering," said Johnson. "The Synechron Labs team quickly saw that Devin transforms how large systems can be understood, modernized, and evolved. By combining AI agents with deep domain expertise, we're helping clients reimagine what's possible across their most critical platforms."

Product Roadmap

The agreement also sets out joint R&D to extend agent functionality, with CI/CD integration and cloud pipeline workflows identified as areas for co-development.

Financial institutions have been exploring how AI systems can fit into software delivery processes built on strict controls. Many large banks use CI/CD practices in parts of their estates, while other areas remain constrained by legacy platforms and risk management requirements. The partners are positioning tighter integration into delivery workflows as one route to broader adoption.

Synechron has 16,850 staff across around 60 offices in more than 20 countries. Cognition focuses on AI coding agents and is the maker of Devin.

Early activity is expected to centre on enterprise pilots, alongside continued development of integrations that connect agent-based engineering to existing delivery pipelines.