Ask the Expert: Agentic AI in GBS

Agentic AI, Tariffs, the Back-to-Office debate, there are a myriad of trends shaping the business world in 2025. But how are they impacting the Global Business Services space? Are they world-defining or something that will pass us by? At the Shared Services and Outsourcing Week Europe 2025, SSON spoke to some of the world’s best Global Business Services leaders about their take on big business trends. 

In this interview, we speak to industry expert Caroline Basyn, Chief Digital and IT Officer, Adecco Group, who has over 30 years of global leadership experience in digital, IT, and business services.

Agentic AI is one of the biggest trends for 2025. What are some of the best ways that shared services can utilize it?

Traditionally, GBS organizations have delivered value through cost-effective labour arbitrage. Over time, they’ve evolved by driving productivity through three key levels: leveraging scale, harmonising processes, and digitising them. Most mature GBS operations have already addressed these areas and are now focused on how to bring even more value to the business, often by expanding into analytics and more value-added activities. Agentic AI enables GBS teams to do more with less, not just improving productivity, but also supporting revenue generation. The GBS organisations that will lead are those capable of delivering new capabilities that directly contribute to the company’s top line. That said, identifying where Agentic AI can bring the most value and implementing it quickly will require focused effort.

In terms of use cases, the most classic examples are in contact centres - areas that require both deep knowledge and complex decision-making. In the past, RPA helped automate transactional or commodity processes. Agentic AI takes this further: not only can it automate tasks, but it can also make decisions and offer recommendations, going well beyond the traditional capabilities of RPA.

You spoke about Agentic GBS in today’s panel, what is this, please tell us more?

Agentic GBS refers to a hybrid operating model in which end-to-end processes owned by GBS are delivered by a combination of human talent and AI agents. The key is understanding which parts of the process can be effectively handled by agents and which still require human expertise. It’s about creating a seamless blend of people and intelligent automation, building an organisation where humans and AI agents work side by side, each doing what they do best. That’s where we’ll see the biggest gains in efficiently, quality and impact.

The innovation cycle is very short these days which makes people question the longevity of Agentic AI, is it something that is here to stay or will there be a new latest and greatest tech in 3 months?

I absolutely believe Agentic AI is here to stay and that it’s going to revolutionise the way we work. What’s moving fast is how we build agents, how we embed them in our processes, and which technologies we use to support them. That’s what’s evolving quickly. So, the key is to stay current. You don’t want to spend weeks or months developing something that could now be built in days. Agility is everything. Also, we know that 60% of AI projects are expected to be cancelled by 2026 - not because AI won’t be relevant, but because there’s too much duplication, too many proofs of concept, or because the IT architecture isn’t ready to scale. That’s the risk: not the technology itself, but how we implement it. And to be clear this isn’t about AI replacing humans. It’s about unlocking more of our human potential. With the right approach, we’ll see better services, more innovation, and stronger results. But it must come with investment in upskilling and training our people. That’s fundamental.

What are some of the risks GBS leaders might want to think about when adopting Agentic AI?

There’s a big responsibility to get this right. From a tech standpoint, AI needs to be secure, scalable, and fit within your architecture. Ethically, it can’t be biased, so you need to pay attention to the data and knowledge it’s trained on. But the biggest risk? Not adopting it at all or adopting it in the wrong way. If GBS leaders don’t embrace Agentic AI at scale, they risk being left behind. The opportunity is there but it requires thoughtful execution.

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