Is your GBS ready for 2026?

This October, the 19th Shared Services & Outsourcing Week (SSOW) Autumn took place in Amsterdam. For three days, the city offered more than just stroopwafels, as it buzzed with bright ideas and forward-thinking discussions.

As 2025 draws to a close, the most future-focused GBS leaders are turning their attention to what 2026 entails. To shed light on the future of shared services, Tom Bangemann, Head of Data Development Research at SSON Research & Analytics, explored the next frontier of value and the top trends shaping GBS agendas.  

Here are five questions that will keep your GBS relevant in 2026 (and beyond!):

1. Should our GBS organizations be expanding their scope?

GBS is no longer confined to transactional finance. The scope is broadening rapidly.

“You can see the list is getting longer... the growth areas are increasingly in the procurement and supply chain area,” said Bangemann.

Expansion areas include:

• Procurement
• Supply chain
• Health & safety
• Other core business support functions

Expanding scope increases relevance, budget, and proximity to core business operations. As Bangemann noted: “The closer you get to core business, the bigger your scope gets... the more value you provide.”

2. What skills should we prioritize in our talent management strategy?

GBS leaders are prioritizing problem-solving, stakeholder engagement, and empathy in recruitment and training. Empathy, in particular, is seen as a critical yet hard-to-train skill, indicating a shift toward more human-centric service delivery.

“Problem solving... seems to be something increasingly difficult to find,” Bangemann observed. “Empathy is the one that appears very difficult to train.”

Top skills to prioritize:

• Problem-solving
• Critical thinking
• Stakeholder engagement
• Empathy
• Digital literacy
• Automation fluency

Tip: Make training programs mandatory, not voluntary. “The moment you have ‘voluntarily’ in the sentence, it doesn’t get done,” Bangemann warned.

3. Should our GBS be leveraging the GPO model?

The GPO model is gaining traction across more processes and functions, not just finance. Companies are increasingly placing GPOs outside GBS to align better with end-to-end targets and incentives, especially in areas such as procurement.

“If it works in PTP, OTC, R2R, why wouldn’t you do it in other functions?” Bangemann asked.

Benefits of the GPO model:

• End-to-end process accountability
• Better alignment with business targets
• Cross-functional integration
• Enhanced process standardization

4. Is AI still an investment priority for GBS?

Generative AI (GenAI) has become a top investment focus. While results are still emerging, the momentum suggests GBS must stay ahead of AI adoption to remain competitive.

“GenAI went from zero to first place on our investment list in one year. No other technology has ever done that,” Bangemann revealed.

The current landscape reveals high expectations for end-to-end automation, with many GBS organizations investing heavily. Although early results of AI implementation show promise, they are yet to be transformative.

5. How should our location strategy evolve in 2026?

Location decisions are increasingly shaped by risk, talent, and innovation. Political unrest, in particular, is at the forefront of many GBS leaders’ minds.

“Political unrest... started at 4% but is now at 16%. More and more people are getting a little bit worried,” Bangemann said.

Key location factors include:

• Cost efficiency
• Talent availability
• Innovation potential
• Political stability
• Customer centricity

Final Thoughts

As GBS continues to evolve, relevance in 2026 will hinge on strategic expansion, future-ready talent, process ownership, AI adoption, and agile location planning. Bangemann’s closing metaphor summed it up best:

“Transformation means metamorphosis... like the caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Unfortunately, many companies just make the caterpillar really fast.”

To truly unlock the next frontier of value, GBS must embrace transformation, not just acceleration.

Want to learn more? SSOW Europe returns to Lisbon in 2026!

Join shared services leaders at the 26th annual SSOW Europe 2026 in Estoril, Portugal! This year, we challenge the GBS model from the outside-in; redefining what tomorrow’s service models must deliver. Prepare to benchmark, innovate and build truly future-proof GBS!

Learn More