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Rethinking Work When AI Becomes a Digital Worker At the June 2026 Agentic & Applied AI for the Enterprise conference, a common thread speakers explored was the view that autonomous agents are an extension of the workforce.

Transformation Is No Longer Enough The future of Record-to-Report (R2R) will not be shaped by incremental improvement. It will be defined by operating model reinvention. Over the past decade, finance organizations have standardized R2R processes, centralized operations into GBS, and implemented global ERP platforms. The result has been efficiency, cost reduction, and stronger control. But the model is now reaching its limits.

Financial recovery is a capability many organizations engage in, but not always one they fully own. When these programs are outsourced, dollars are recovered and insights are gained, but the knowledge that accumulates doesn't always stay inside the organization. What remains behind may be worth far more. For decades, organizations have focused on optimizing costs through outsourcing, shared services, and process automation.

Most shared services leaders will first hear agentic AI as a technology story. I think it is something deeper. Agentic AI will test whether shared services organizations are ready to operate differently. Not just automate more work. Not just reduce manual touches. Not just build another list of use cases. It will test whether the work itself is stable enough, governed enough, and understood well enough for an agent to enter it. That is the real question.

HR is Leading Through Layered Disruption The pace and scale of change facing organizations today is unprecedented. Geopolitical instability, inflationary pressures, rapid digitalization, and shrinking labor pools are creating an era defined by uncertainty. Rather than navigating isolated waves of disruption, business leaders are now grappling with compounding challenges. For organizations, this turbulence brings significant strategic risks.

The GBS industry has spent the better part of two decades trying to solve a problem it may have inadvertently created. We talk endlessly about end-to-end processes, "enterprise value," integrated service delivery, and breaking down silos. We build operating models designed to connect functions. We establish governance structures intended to drive enterprise decisions. We create transformation programs to improve how work flows across the organization.

Governing AI That No Longer Just Advises At SSON's Agentic & Applied AI for the Enterprise conference, speakers focused on how autonomous agents are beginning to reshape operating models – and instate a new digital workforce. However, as shared services examine how to progress towards enterprise-wide deployment, one area is emerging as the defining test of success: governance.

You only have to look across the wealth of resources within the SSON article base and your broader networks to know that the future of work has arrived. The future is being reshaped by shifting employee expectations, intergenerational workforces, rapid technological change, and a transformed psychological contract. The psychological contract is the unwritten expectations between employees and employers (and vice versa).

HR Shared Services & Outsourcing Week 2026: Editor’s Reflections Add bookmark HR's Evolving Delivery Model in an AI-Enabled World During my time in sunny Atlanta last week, I was able to attend the HR Shared Services & Outsourcing Week 2026 conference. The event brought together HR leaders to discuss the next era of the function and what HR delivery could look like in an increasingly AI-enabled and agentic world.

Agentic Conversations Extend Beyond Capabilities to Implementation This week, I attended the Agentic & Applied AI for the Enterprise conference in the Southern cosmopolitan of Atlanta, Georgia. The event brought together AI thought leaders, practitioners, and executives to define how to build the autonomous enterprise. In the dynamic presentations and collaborative workshops, the conversations focused less on technology capabilities and more on the practical implementation of AI agents.