The Hackett Group’s 2026 Global Business Services Key Issues Study finds that GBS organizations are stepping up Artificial Intelligence adoption as pressure on productivity intensifies. The study finds the GBS workload is forecast to grow by 15% in 2026, outpacing projected staffing growth of 10% and budget increases of just 7%. This creates a 5% productivity gap and an 8% efficiency gap, prompting leaders to use generative Artificial Intelligence and automation as transformation tools to redesign how work is organized and delivered.
Artificial Intelligence is already changing GBS operations beyond routine automation. Nearly 90% of GBS leaders report that Artificial Intelligence is reshaping routine tasks, and more than half see measurable effects on complex work. Early generative Artificial Intelligence deployments are delivering a 13% improvement in customer experience, 11% gains in both employee engagement and service quality, and a 10% productivity boost. Cost reduction and full-time equivalent savings have been more limited, indicating that the main value of Artificial Intelligence is improving service performance rather than simply cutting expenses.
Deployment plans are broadening across functions. One-quarter of GBS organizations expect broad deployment in 2026, up from under 10% a year ago. Customer service leads with 32% planning wide-scale deployment, followed by information technology at 25% and supply chain at 21%. In established GBS domains such as finance, procurement and human resources, 13% to 18% are preparing for broad rollout, while most others are piloting or selectively deploying Artificial Intelligence. At the same time, business process outsourcing providers are embedding Artificial Intelligence into service delivery to shift work from manual labor to digital labor, giving enterprises another route to scale capabilities that may be difficult to build internally.
Despite the momentum, confidence in achieving core GBS goals is weakening. While 70% of GBS leaders rank cost leadership as a top priority and 69% prioritize value creation, only 30% now express high confidence in meeting cost reduction targets, down from 44% last year, and just 21% are highly confident in achieving value creation goals, down from 41% last year. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of leaders cite misalignment between expected and actual Artificial Intelligence benefits as a significant concern, tied with process complexity and technology immaturity. Leaders are prioritizing broader automation, digital skills, stronger data integrity and governance, tighter alignment between cost optimization and value creation, and performance measures that include customer experience, employee engagement, service quality, and innovation alongside traditional cost metrics.
