Global Business Services Predictions for 2026 from Filippo Passerini and Tony Saldanha, Inixia Co-Founders.
It’s a new year, which means new opportunities and new challenges for GBS. Or does it? In other words, is the GBS change-cycle annual in nature? While most company priorities and performance management processes tend to be yearly, the GBS industry as a unit has unpredictable cycles. There are periods of incredibly fast change mixed with times of relative stability.
We think 2026 will unquestionably be a period of rapid change. And while nobody can accurately predict the future, including mathematicians and industry experts, here are our Global Business Services Predictions.
- AI hype gets more targeted, and more sober: The GBS industry is certainly not done with AI hype. But growing data showing that currently only about 5% of enterprise AI projects deliver value will lead to clarity on good vs. bad use cases. GBS leaders will get a bigger say on where to apply AI, as opposed to feeling pressured to “do something in AI”. And that’s good.
- The global nature of GBS perseveres in the face of growing nationalistic trends: Reports of the death of offshoring and outsourcing have been greatly exaggerated. Again and again. And over many years. But, as a proven efficiency model for companies, offshoring and outsourcing strategies cannot be ignored. Companies will find new ways to work within the new tariff and regulatory frameworks.
- The challenge of the business understanding the value of GBS continues, without any breakthrough: Not to be downers on this topic, but we are simply not ready. And “we” in this case means GBS leaders. This isn’t the business’ problem, it is ours. The ability to bundle together siloed transactional processes and create end-to-end transformation magic hasn’t reached critical mass in GBS. And then, we need to layer on top of this the professional storytelling and communications skills. That’s a big lift for most leaders, including GBS leaders. We see sporadic brilliance but no systemic breakthrough. We have great talent, and we will get there in a few years.
- GCCs continue to attract more attention; and some hype: The idea that offshore delivery centers are higher-value capability centers has caught fire, especially in offshore center countries. And deservedly so. It’s time to change the narrative of offshore groups as cheap labor centers. But merely relabeling existing groups won’t move the needle. It will take a year or two for enough success stories of existing Shared Service Centers (SSCs) successfully transitioning to GCCs to emerge.
- The GBS industry begins to mature, albeit slowly, on standard industry models and terminology: This is a big change. In a significant evolution of GBS industry maturity, we should see more examples of organizations leapfrogging to higher maturity levels and achieving transformative value by applying proven “standard” GBS models. Running GBS with a business mindset, organizing GBS work into products and services, proven models for associating cost and value to GBS services, systemic models to engage with business stakeholders – these models will drive fast value in more cases.
The GBS industry continues to be a people business at heart. And 2026 should prove once again that GBS professionals who start by re-engineering themselves will consistently win. The number of GBS people who have the right mindset and skillset continues to motivate us. Here’s to a highly productive and enjoyable year!
Best regards,
Filippo Passerini
Co-Founder and President,
Inixia
Tony Saldanha
Co-Founder and CEO,
Inixia