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Yes–intercompany is fixable. But only if you treat it as a cross-functional, enterprise-level transformation, not a Finance problem to be patched in isolation.

Doing More with Less: The Case for Agentic AI At SSON's Agentic & Applied AI for the Enterprise conference, discussions reflected the shared services/ Global Business Services' (GBS) desire to answer structural questions that limit agentic adoption: How should shared services design processes for AI agents? How should agentic workflows be governed? How should teams measure the output of agentic AI?

Employee Engagement Levels are Falling Employee engagement has become one of the most heavily invested areas in organizational development. Engagement surveys, wellbeing programs, reward platforms, culture campaigns, and social events have become standard practice across industries. Yet despite this investment, global engagement continues to fall. Gallup's 2024 workplace report shows engagement continues to decline, dropping to 23% worldwide.

Agentic AI can help improve a broken shared services process, but it should not be treated as the default remedy for every process problem. Before placing an agent inside a workflow, leaders need to understand what is actually broken–and whether the organization needs AI to assist people, Agentic AI to act within the process, or a more fundamental change to repair the system itself. Key Takeaways for GBS Leaders Not all AI is Agentic AI.

Finance organizations have never had greater visibility into their operations than they do today. Artificial intelligence (AI), automation, sophisticated ERP platforms, and advanced analytics have transformed how finance leaders monitor performance and make decisions. Organizations continue to invest heavily in dashboards, KPIs, and reporting capabilities that provide faster, deeper insight into the information generated within their own businesses.

Looking for a global business services job? Today's GBS job seekers have a real problem beyond a choppy employment market. Not because they lack experience, ambition, or marketable achievements. The problem is that the content of the majority of GBS roles is hopelessly imprecise. So here's the conundrum. One company's GBS transformation leader is another company's transition lead with a more prestigious title.

In June 2026, SSON hosted a webinar with Hypatos and EY on "The Power of Thinking Differently: Why Process Mapping Falls Short in the Age of Agentic AI." Global Business Services leaders keep making one costly mistake with agentic AI: treating it like the next RPA. The pattern is familiar: find the broken step, bolt on automation, measure the local win. It works, but it leaves most of the value on the table.

Remote access used to be a side project for most IT teams. Before 2020, working from home was viewed as a perk rather than an operating model, which meant most organizations could get by with a basic VPN, a few firewall rules, and occasional troubleshooting from the help desk. That approach no longer reflects how modern businesses operate.

A note before you read this. This article is not a framework handed down from a research lab. It is what happens when someone with nearly two decades in and around shared services spends months sitting at the intersection of the best research available, the most honest practitioner conversations, and the daily reality of leading through AI transformation.

Over the last few years, most organizations have increased their focus on training. New ways of delivery have emerged, moving from classroom to e-learning, giving real-time access to knowledge. This is supported by giving employees access to multiple sources at the same time to ensure broad topic coverage. The main idea behind it is very good: to equip and empower employees to drive their personal development. This is especially visible now around AI, and it's becoming a standard approach.