Market View
Navigating the AI transformation journey: How global service providers are reimagining value creation
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Produced by:
Ankur Saxena
Vice President and Head of Operations for IP and R&D Solutions at Evalueserve
About Ankur Saxena
Ankur Saxena serves as Vice President and Head of Operations for IP and R&D Solutions at Evalueserve, where he leads a team delivering high-quality solutions to Fortune 500 clients across multiple sectors globally. With over 18 years at Evalueserve, Ankur has developed extensive expertise in intellectual property, innovation management, and business strategy. His leadership focuses on helping organisations optimise their intellectual property strategies and innovation portfolios to gain competitive advantages in an increasingly AI-driven business landscape.
How do you see the service provider landscape evolving as AI capabilities accelerate?
The service provider landscape is undergoing a fundamental transformation as AI capabilities accelerate. The primary shift we're seeing is related to the democratisation of productivity and efficiency tools. Previously, service providers built their reputations on process optimisation and bridging knowledge gaps for clients. Now, with AI, the barriers to entry have significantly reduced.
We're already witnessing an influx of new players entering the market with unique value propositions and products tailored to specific use cases. These new entrants aren't just bringing new technologies—they're introducing completely different business models for engaging with clients.
For established service providers like us, this means staying vigilant about how we leverage AI within our own operations while developing sustainable growth models. I believe we'll see the service industry split into two directions: some services becoming more commoditised due to AI-driven efficiency gains, while others push upward into higher-value consulting work where deep domain expertise still provides differentiation.
The competitive edge will increasingly come from our ability to combine technology with tacit knowledge developed through years of working with clients. While new entrants may offer AI-powered solutions for specific use cases, our advantage lies in understanding how different companies operate—for instance, how P&Gs a consumer product company's approach to innovation differs from a medical technology company such as Medtronic. This knowledge allows us to layer the right technologies onto specific client scenarios rather than being restricted to particular tools.
We're not talking about a 10 or 20% efficiency gain, we're talking about a much larger ambition. That's why we have to go back to the drawing board and re-engineer the whole way we work as opposed to just tweaking things or tightening the screws here and there.
With automation and AI, production or output is going to speed up a lot. But is the industry or humanity or the world ready to consume it at the speed at which it can get generated now? There is a major imbalance, and that's where I think new business models are going to come into the picture.
What changes are you seeing in how clients think about and value service delivery?
With the dawn of the AI age, we're seeing clients grapple with substantial organisational changes. While AI technology has advanced rapidly, most organisations weren't structured to utilise these new capabilities effectively across departments, processes, and workflows.
This has introduced significant entropy into the system. Every company—including service providers like us—is looking to increase velocity and throughput in ways that weren't possible just a few years ago. However, this requires addressing substantial structural and organisational challenges, with adoption being one of the biggest hurdles.
We're moving from entirely human-centric organisations to what we call an "AI-first approach." This shift carries different implications across businesses since each company has its unique implementation strategy. While productivity and efficiency gains are the lowest-hanging fruit, we're also seeing AI significantly expand the innovation funnel.
For example, if a company traditionally aimed to develop 200 inventions annually, AI now enables them to potentially triple that input because inventors have access to more information and can test ideas more rapidly. This expansion at the top of the funnel creates both opportunities and challenges.
Companies must now establish effective decision points throughout their processes to prioritise innovations, as no organisation has unlimited resources. This is driving new roles focused on compliance and management to handle the increased throughput. At Evalueserve, we're helping clients navigate this complexity by developing solutions that make sense of these rapidly expanding innovation cycles.
How are you identifying where AI can add the most value in your own service delivery?
Like many organisations, we've prioritised productivity and efficiency gains while ensuring we can measure the ROI rather than simply putting faith in AI. However, our approach goes beyond incremental improvements—we're not talking about 10-20% efficiency gains but a much larger ambition.
We're conducting rigorous diagnostics of our internal processes, going back to the drawing board to re-engineer our entire way of working rather than just tweaking around the edges. This has led us to redefine our service stack, moving away from traditional service descriptions toward conversations about how our AI capabilities can align with clients' visions for their internal workflows.
I believe the service spectrum is splitting due to AI and agentic frameworks. Some services are becoming more commoditised where quick efficiency gains are possible, while others present opportunities to move upmarket into higher-end consulting work. Our strategy involves positioning ourselves appropriately across this spectrum based on our technological capabilities and human expertise.
Almost everybody is right now simply talking about productivity. I've not seen too much chatter or discussions around value. The value is going to become the ultimate driver of which business thrives and which just survives.
What cultural and capability changes have been necessary to support AI implementation?
The most challenging aspect of AI implementation has been the cultural shift required. We're fundamentally changing how things have worked until very recently, which demands significant adaptation from our teams.
We're investing heavily in educating everyone not just on technical skills like prompt engineering and agent interaction, but more importantly on the mindset change needed to embrace AI effectively. This requires strong leadership across the organisation to champion the change and bring everyone along on the journey.
The pace of evolution has accelerated dramatically—whereas previously we had more time to adapt to technological changes, now we're constantly chasing the curve. This creates three interrelated challenges: developing new skills, overcoming inertia to change, and building trust in AI systems.
The trust element is particularly important in intellectual property work, where ethical questions arise about AI's role in invention and innovation. These three factors—skill development, change management, and trust building—require significant investment of resources and strong leadership to navigate successfully.
About Evalueserve
Evalueserve is a global leader in data-driven insights and solutions, specialising in intellectual property, innovation management, and research and development services. The company partners with Fortune 500 clients across diverse sectors to deliver high-quality solutions that enhance business value through operational excellence and innovation. Leveraging expertise in emerging technologies and AI analytics, Evalueserve helps organisations transform business processes and catalyse growth by optimising intellectual property strategies and innovation portfolios.
About Enate
Enate is the leading SaaS solution for business services. Enate orchestrates work from start to finish, giving clients the visibility and control needed to deliver better services. From email management and data analysis to intelligent document processing, Enate also offers a host of touch-button AI features designed to slash the time spent on manual work. Trusted by global service teams, Enate ensures smooth, consistent operations that help clients perform at their best.