Panel · 2:45 to 3:15 PM · Thursday, May 14, 2026
Our next panel will be led by, will be moderated by my colleague Ashwin, who's come from the other side of the world, all the way from India, and he's going to be leading this panel to discuss the future of IT services and business process outsourcing. And we're running a little over time, so let me just invite Ashwin and team to come on over. Hi. Thank you.
All right. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Ashwin. I lead our technology services research here at HFS. So fellow panelists, our mission is to discuss the future of IT and business process services. And we have 30 minutes to figure out the answers. So it's a pretty straightforward mission for us. So let's do a quick round of introductions. So I'd like you to tell us about your background quickly. And then one word or one phrase that comes to your mind when we think of future of IT and business services. You're not allowed to use agentic or AI. Satish, let's start with you.
Hi, it's always great to be back. Satish Nair, I head up Global Client Relationships by Infosys. Change is a word. Change.
Hi, my name is Saju Joseph. I look after GBS BPO for Becton Dickinson. The word I would say is bright.
I was at Citi for about 19 years, heading the GBS, the finance and risk share services and infosec operations, always based in New York. So I would say the current state, I wish I could say bright, but I would say conflicted.
Hello, I'm Jon Harding. As it says there, I was the global CIO of Conair Cuisinart, the consumer products company for quite a long time, but I prefer not to say long time. I prefer vintage or seasoned. Or experienced CIOs become advisors and consultants, right? Oh, and my word is different. Different.
Hi, my name is Ashish Chaturvedi. I lead BPO research at HFS. And the word that comes to mind is recomposition.
Okay. So it could be a different kind of change, recomposed, which can lead to a bright but yet conflicted future. Okay, we'll get there. So what we wanted to do is we have been thinking about how the future of IT and business process services will look like. And we have been looking at various parts of operations and the impact AI could have across them. This is a simplistic framework—in the bottom left are services most amenable to AI-led disruption. Moving right, services will be AI-enabled but still human-led. Top left includes platformized services with human control. And finally, certain services may remain relatively immune to AI. Arindam, your thoughts?
While the framework is simple, each quadrant carries a lot of complexity. We are seeing changes first in the bottom-left quadrant—repeatable, deterministic processes like transaction processing and code generation. These are already being transformed. The challenge is the top-left area—where AI can do much of the work but requires human oversight for policies, security, and exceptions. This is where progress has been slower than expected.
Fair enough. Saju, you mentioned the future is bright. BD is a complex, regulated organization. What foundational work are you doing to prepare for an AI-enabled model?
Companies like BD need a dynamic framework. First, focus on outcomes—not transactions or capacity. Second, redesign processes continuously to enable change. Third, capture tribal knowledge across the organization using structured frameworks. These combined create a strong platform for transformation.
Satish, from a service provider perspective, how does this change the role of business processes?
We must move from viewing services as activities to viewing them as business functions. Each function spans multiple AI and human-driven elements. The challenge lies in orchestrating these across fragmented ecosystems while maintaining control, compliance, and outcomes in a probabilistic world.
Jon, what does this transition mean from a CIO perspective?
There are many moving parts, and organizations must align around a common understanding. There is still an expectations gap between service providers and enterprises, which needs to be addressed through transparency and partnership.
Ashish, you mentioned recomposition. Is the services industry declining or evolving?
The industry isn’t dying—it’s being recomposed. Key elements like pricing, talent, delivery models, and competition are all changing. While AI disrupts transactional services, the remaining services can grow significantly by delivering higher value, such as end-to-end financial optimization instead of simple transaction processing.
If enterprises lead with contracts instead of outcomes during this transformation, they will fail. Flexibility and outcome-based thinking are essential.
Ultimately, customers pay for value. Services will continue to exist because complexity remains high, and organizations need partners to navigate change.
There is also an expectation that AI will reduce costs. Balancing cost expectations with value delivery will be critical.
Business functions will persist, but how they are executed will fundamentally change. AI will reshape how outcomes are delivered.
What new services are emerging?
Platform-based services are growing rapidly, such as autonomous sourcing and full-stack operational platforms. These are driven by AI-enabled transformation and demand for integrated solutions.
The industry must move away from a headcount-driven mindset. Success will depend on outcomes rather than workforce size.
Talent models are shifting from vertical specialization to horizontal capabilities like analytics and reconciliation. Organizations also need more change agents and internal sales capabilities.
Trust will be built by focusing on outcomes, aligning with business strategy, and delivering quick wins to build credibility.
Enterprises see hyperscalers as primary AI partners, but service providers remain critical as orchestrators—like air traffic controllers—ensuring systems work together effectively.
Service providers’ strength lies in deep process knowledge, which is essential for making AI transformations successful.
This is also a marketing challenge—providers must better communicate the value they deliver to remain competitive.
So we have figured this out in 30 minutes. Thank you, everyone.
Thank you Ashwin, Ashish, Saju, Satish, Jon, and Arindam.
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