Market View
Navigating the AI transformation journey: How global service providers are reimagining value creation
Sponsored by:
Produced by:
Kumar Lalit
Vice President and Partner in Applied Advisory at Genpact
About Kumar Lalit
Kumar Lalit is Vice President and Partner in Applied Advisory at Genpact, focusing on Consumer Goods, Data-Tech-AI, Finance, Supply Chain, GBS, GCC, Value Office, and Partnerships. With expertise in Human Centred Design Thinking, Lean Six Sigma, Strategy, and Consulting, he leads transformation initiatives for Fortune 500 companies, leveraging his strategic acumen to drive operational improvements, navigate digital landscapes, and enhance customer and employee experiences to achieve revenue and margin growth.
How do you see the service provider landscape evolving as AI capabilities mature?
The service provider industry is undergoing a fundamental paradigm shift. When this industry began—with Genpact being one of the pioneers in 1997—the premise was centralising transactional, non-judgmental work in economical locations. With RPA, we moved to automating repetitive tasks. Now, AI is completely changing our understanding of what constitutes non-analytical labour because AI can be both analytical and as intelligent as humans.
Companies are increasingly focused on balancing efforts between growing versus running their business. Under market pressure from rising prices and supply chain challenges, they're seeking cost reduction while maintaining growth focus.
The future will see service providers becoming custodians of clients' entire 'run' business operations, managing both human intelligence and AI-led labour. Service providers will extend their scope as AI agents replace functions traditionally performed by humans on the client side. This shift occurs because businesses prefer to concentrate on customer engagement and growth activities rather than operational management.
Partnership is not about cost. Partnership is about value. Partnership is about being an equal partner in contribution to business growth.
What changes are you seeing in how clients think about and value service delivery?
Service delivery has evolved dramatically from its origins. Initially, clients viewed it through the lens of cost reduction, with concerns about distant teams and communication barriers, despite economic benefits.
Today, with AI integration, businesses see service delivery partners as collaborators in achieving business outcomes. Rather than focusing on traditional SLAs like hours worked or staffing levels, clients are looking at business outcomes—for example, inventory reduction targets—and how service partners contribute to these goals.
Partnership is not about cost. Partnership is about value. Partnership is about being an equal partner in contribution to business growth.
The partnership has shifted from cost-focused to value-focused. Service providers are becoming equal contributors to business growth by identifying and addressing leakages in processes like claims processing, where human capacity limitations previously led to significant financial losses.
AI enables service providers to interpret information at scale, triangulating documents and data sources to quickly identify issues like invalid claims. This accelerates processes—reducing claim processing from 90 days to just days—improving cash flow and delivering tangible value to clients.
How are you currently identifying where AI can add the most value in service delivery?
The impact of AI on service delivery is double-edged. AI will undoubtedly reduce full-time equivalent (FTE) revenue, challenging the traditional FTE-based business model. However, it simultaneously presents an opportunity to deepen client partnerships.
By managing clients' end-to-end operations with both AI and human resources, service providers enable clients to focus on growth initiatives. This represents both a threat and an opportunity to become better partners.
The growing adoption of AI is driving a shift from FTE-based commercial models to outcome-based and value-based models. Rather than charging for the number of employees deployed, service providers can offer commercial arrangements based on specific outcomes, such as reducing invoice processing costs from $7 to $2 per invoice and sharing the resulting value.
Additionally, AI enables identification and prevention of leakages like duplicate payments by examining contract elements that human capacity previously couldn't address comprehensively. These value-led commercial models are replacing traditional approaches, benefiting both parties through improved cash flow and bottom-line growth.
AI cannot be applied in silos. It's always the end-to-end which helps in developing those agentic solutions.
Before implementing AI, what foundational improvements in service delivery did you need to make?
Preparing for AI transformation requires several key foundational changes:
Firstly, developing skill sets that transcend traditional functional silos is crucial. We need to cultivate professionals who can think across typical boundaries and understand interconnected business processes. This means developing talent with integrated understanding of entire value chains and industry-specific knowledge, rather than siloed processes.
AI cannot be applied in silos. It's always the end-to-end which helps in developing those agentic solutions.
Secondly, organisations must rethink structure as AI and human intelligence coexist. Traditional boundaries between IT and HR are blurring, raising questions about which department should manage AI agents. With AI agents requiring continuous development and training (similar to human talent), a hybrid role is emerging that combines IT and HR functions.
Finally, organisations must distinguish between quick wins using mature technologies like generative AI and longer-term solutions like agentic AI. Generative AI can be deployed quickly for reading documents and providing insights. However, agentic AI—which can make judgments like humans—requires more development time and a solid orchestration foundation.
How have you adjusted your service catalogue to prepare for AI implementation?
Under new leadership, Genpact has pivoted from managed services to become a tech services company, working closely with technology partners and developing new offerings. We've launched Data Gigafactory, a modular programme supporting AI companies struggling with data challenges.
Our service catalogue is evolving from FTE-based models to AI-led models, focusing on being value partners for clients. Importantly, while AI depends on data, it's also revolutionising data transformation itself. Previously, unstructured data needed conversion to structured formats, but generative AI can now work directly with unstructured data, accelerating overall transformation.
If you can't measure, you can't improve it.
Beyond the AI buzzword, the fundamentals of service orchestration remain essential. Whether using human or AI workers, organisations need to measure performance, integrate across functions, and connect processes. Effective agentic AI solutions require proper orchestration layers, clear policy documents, and integrated functions to work across organisational boundaries.
True agentic AI, which can process information, engage with stakeholders, make decisions within parameters, and escalate exceptions, remains in early development. Building effective agentic solutions requires strong orchestration capabilities and cannot be implemented without proper foundation of workflow management, performance measurement, and cross-functional integration.
If you can't measure, you can't improve it.
About Genpact
Genpact is a global professional services firm delivering digital transformation and AI-powered business process solutions to Fortune 500 companies worldwide. Originally a GE subsidiary before becoming independent, Genpact specialises in data-driven intelligence, operational excellence, and digital technology integration. Recent initiatives include the AI Gigafactory and CFO Actions Hub, aimed at scaling AI solutions and providing on-demand insights for decision support. With over 115,000 employees across multiple countries, Genpact helps clients transform operations to drive growth, efficiency, and competitive advantage.
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.