This October, SSON returned to the vibrant city of Amsterdam for Shared Services & Outsourcing Week (SSOW) Autumn 2026. Between Amsterdam's canals and cobbled streets, SSOW Autumn offered a clear view of where GBS transformation is heading next.
AI dominated the agenda, but speakers repeatedly challenged the idea that you can just deploy another tool and call it transformation. The stronger message was that organizations must clarify outcomes, fix their foundations, connect functions, and create the conditions in which people are empowered to use technology effectively.
From redesigning work around outcomes to tackling change fatigue, five lessons stood out for building a more intelligent, yet people-centric, GBS organization.
1. Transformation Must Begin with the Outcome
In recent months, AI as a transformation enabler has taken center stage. Speakers shared that the biggest opportunities lie in redesigning work around a desired outcome, rather than automating an existing process to make it faster.
That means resisting the urge to build an operating model around a platform that will inevitably change. Instead, leaders should begin with the business problem, examine the work end to end, and ask where better decisions or experiences could create value.
The most successful adopters of AI are the clearest about the problem they need it to solve.
2. There are No Shortcuts for Process Foundations
Ambitious AI programs still depend on the less glamorous fundamentals: clean data, standardized processes, clear ownership, and sensible sequencing.
Mauro Portela, GBS Managing Director, Global Master Data Stewardship & Operations at Danone, described master data as the "cipher key" that enables AI to connect information reliably. Portela recommended a simple sequence:
- Identify the business need
- Choose the solution according to the desired outcome
- Establish the data foundation
- Improve the process
- And only then implement the technology.
Poor foundations become a larger operational risk when you introduce AI. You cannot automate your way around them.
3. Human Capacity Should be the Measure of AI Value
Faster production does not automatically mean better performance. Jarek Wojnarowski, Vice President, Global Business Services at Pandora, highlighted a growing burden: as AI generates more material, people must spend more time reviewing it.
AI should reduce administration and free employees for judgment, relationship management, and higher-value work. The value of that released capacity depends on where it is reinvested. Alongside measuring time saved, organizations should ask whether AI improves decisions, creates space for human interaction, and reduces low-value work.
As Wioletta Straczek, Senior Director, Finance Transformation at Hitachi Digital, described: "It's not about creating more content, but redirecting capacity to the human aspect of the change."
4. Co-Creation Generates Lasting Transformation
Co-creation, transparency, and trust are not soft additions to transformation, but part of the operating model required to make transformation sustainable. Charlotte Lester, Deputy Director, Deployment & Partnerships at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), captured this neatly: "Done with, not done to."
Leaders can define what needs to change while giving frontline teams room to shape how it happens. Employees need to understand the effect on their roles, be able to explain the change simply, and participate in testing.
Consultation and engagement therefore need to happen during design. People are more likely to support change when they can see its relevance, influence its implementation, and understand what it means for them.
Employees need clarity, honesty, and a meaningful role in shaping what happens next.
5. The Next GBS Advantage is its Ability to Connect the Enterprise
GBS has a privileged view across the organization. It can identify silos, connect processes, and orient work around the end user experience rather than the boundaries of individual functions.
That perspective matters because transformation impacts one department in isolation. Payroll, for example, sits within a connected cycle spanning HR, finance, systems, and upstream data. Improving only the final step cannot resolve problems created elsewhere.
GBS can build influence by becoming the connective tissue that helps the enterprise work as a whole.
Real Transformation is Organizational
My overarching takeaway from SSOW Autumn is that the future of GBS will not be determined by technology alone. AI may accelerate the journey, but sustainable transformation still depends on:
- Clear outcomes
- Reliable data
- Connected processes
- And people who understand and shape the change
The opportunity for GBS is to bring those elements together, and in doing so, provide value to the entire organization.