GBS Organizations Turn to AI to Bridge Growing Productivity Gap — The Hackett Group, Inc.

Event summary

The Hackett Group's 2026 Global Business Services (GBS) Key Issues Study reveals a 5% productivity gap and an 8% efficiency gap due to workload growth outpacing staffing and budget increases.
Nearly 90% of GBS leaders report AI reshaping routine tasks, with over half seeing measurable effects on complex work.
Early Gen AI deployments show a 13% improvement in customer experience, 11% gains in employee engagement and service quality, and a 10% productivity boost.
One-quarter of GBS organizations expect broad deployment of AI in 2026, up from under 10% a year ago.

The big picture

GBS organizations are facing unprecedented productivity pressure, with workloads growing faster than staffing and budgets. AI is being deployed not just for cost savings but as a strategic transformation engine to reimagine how work is structured and delivered. This shift is reshaping outsourcing relationships and forcing GBS leaders to focus on execution discipline rather than just strategic intent.

What we're watching

AI Execution Gap: Whether GBS leaders can close the widening gap between AI ambition and outcomes, as only 30% express high confidence in meeting cost reduction targets.
Outsourcing Evolution: How BPO providers will adapt to shifting from labor arbitrage to AI-enabled digital transformation partnerships.
Process Transformation: The pace at which organizations move beyond experimentation to process-level transformation supported by clear business cases.