Market View
Navigating AI transformation at scale: how global service providers are reimagining value creation
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Geoffrey Doran
VP Digital - Head of CX Transformation UK, EU & AUS at EXL
About Geoffrey Doran
Geoffrey Doran currently serves as VP Digital - Head of CX Transformation UK, EU & AUS at EXL, a position he has held since November 2024. In this role, he focuses on supporting clients with end-to-end Customer Experience (CX) transformation by combining strategic vision with technical expertise. His work involves leveraging data insights, appropriate technologies, and domain expertise to help organisations understand their customers better and deliver frictionless experiences across preferred channels. Prior to joining EXL, he held positions at companies including NTT DATA UK&I, Adare Village, and including NTT Data UK&I, Nivoda and ran his own digital agency in Ireland for 3 years.
How is AI reshaping relationships between global service providers and their enterprise clients?
The emergence of AI has fundamentally transformed both our service delivery and client interactions. Today's clients are significantly more informed about available technology solutions, largely because AI has made research far more efficient. This shift has accelerated the sales process and led to more focused technical discussions across all departments, as organisations seek to leverage AI for improving customer experience and operational efficiency.
Our approach has evolved beyond traditional outsourcing to coupling services with transformative technology. For instance, rather than simply deploying 500 people in a call centre, we now focus on optimising that workforce through technology integration. We might propose reducing the headcount over our engagement to 200 by implementing AI solutions that enhance service quality while maintaining operational excellence and reducing cost-to-serve. This transformation in our client conversations reflects a deeper integration of technology and service delivery.
The evolution is particularly evident in customer experience centres, where AI is revolutionising traditional contact centre operations. We project that within five years, 70% of traditional contact centre roles will be transformed, particularly in handling high-volume, low-complexity tasks. This shift is driving remarkable growth – our CX division alone has expanded from 80 to over 200 people in just 12 months.
Our approach has evolved beyond traditional outsourcing to coupling services with transformative technology, focusing on optimising workforce through AI integration while maintaining operational excellence.
How are you evolving your service delivery model to blend AI capabilities with domain expertise?
Our unique selling proposition lies in the trifecta of domain expertise, data analytics, and AI capabilities. With 25 years of experience in outsourcing, particularly in insurance and banking sectors, we're leveraging this foundation to develop AI solutions that address specific industry challenges. For example, we recently launched our own insurance-focused Large Language Model, recognising a gap in the market for domain-specific AI solutions in insurance.
Our approach to service delivery is increasingly focused on scalability and cost reduction through technology. We implement solutions in an agile manner, starting with small projects to demonstrate value in specific business lines before expanding across the organisation. This approach has proven particularly effective when working with clients who have siloed solutions across different business units – by consolidating and replicating successful proof-of-value implementations, we can deliver significant value at scale.
The integration of AI into our service delivery model extends to comprehensive solutions that go beyond traditional operations. We're developing sophisticated customer self-service capabilities, AI-powered automated agents, and contextual handover processes to human agents when needed. This includes implementing smart auditing services and workflow automation to reduce post-call processing time, with over 50% of our revenue now coming from digital services.
What challenges have you encountered in maintaining service excellence whilst navigating global standardisation?
The primary challenges revolve around balancing global standardisation with local implementation – what we call a "glocal" approach. This involves addressing various elements including workforce resourcing, cultural integration, technology implementation, scalability, data management, regulatory compliance, and cost considerations.
Data governance presents a particular challenge, especially when working with multinational clients. We must carefully consider where data is stored and processed, adhering to different regulatory requirements across regions such as the EU, US, and UK. While infrastructure providers like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft offer various options for data storage locations, the complexity lies in managing how that data is processed, accessed, and utilised across different geographical locations whilst maintaining consistent service delivery.
Our solutions involve developing clear global AI strategies with centres of excellence, while adapting these to local markets and jurisdictions through regional expertise. This approach requires robust communication channels and bidirectional information flow between global and local teams, ensuring knowledge sharing and continuous improvement across the organisation.
We employ a 'glocal' approach – taking global standardisation and implementing it locally – to address challenges around workforce resourcing, cultural integration, technology implementation, and regulatory compliance.
The key to new value creation lies not just in having access to data, but in driving actionable insights from it through our comprehensive measurement framework encompassing financial, operational, and customer-centric metrics.
How do you measure and validate new forms of value creation as you implement AI initiatives?
We employ a comprehensive approach to measuring value creation, starting with thorough discovery processes to understand the current state and define future objectives. What's changed with AI is the depth and accessibility of analytics – we now have more powerful, insightful dashboards that enable better-informed decision-making at all levels.
Our measurement framework encompasses financial metrics, operational metrics, and customer-centric metrics, all interconnected through our CX insights Hub. This provides a single point of entry for all metrics, making it easier to share performance data across the organisation and assign accountability. The key to new value creation lies not just in having access to data, but in driving actionable insights from it. By establishing a foundational layer of data visibility first, we can continue to evolve and identify new opportunities for value creation as we implement new solutions.
In terms of specific metrics, we focus on both efficiency and experience measures. This includes tracking, cost-to-serve, and the effectiveness of self-service options through containment and deflection rates. We've seen significant improvements, with some use cases massively reducing daily call volumes from 500 to just 10 through effective self-service implementation. Additionally, we measure customer satisfaction through NPS and CSAT scores, ensuring that efficiency gains don't come at the expense of service quality.
About EXL
EXL (NASDAQ: EXLS) is a global data and AI company that offers services and solutions to reinvent client business models, drive better outcomes and unlock growth with speed. EXL harnesses the power of data, AI, and deep industry knowledge to transform businesses, including the world’s leading corporations in industries including insurance, healthcare, banking and capital markets, retail, communications and media, and energy and infrastructure, among others. EXL was founded in 1999 with the core values of innovation, collaboration, excellence, integrity and respect. We are headquartered in New York and have approximately 57,000 employees spanning six continents. For more information, visit www.exlservice.com.
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.