Deloitte: Firms blend AI outsourcing with selective insourcing for agility
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM — The global talent-sourcing playbook is being rewritten, according to Deloitte’s 2024 Global Outsourcing Survey. The study of more than 500 C-suite and senior executives shows organizations are doubling down on AI-powered vendor relationships even as they pull select capabilities back in-house to regain control and build strategic skills.
AI-powered outsourcing becomes the new normal
Eighty-three percent of respondents already embed artificial intelligence in at least one outsourced service line, and one in five has a formal “digital-workforce” strategy to manage bots alongside people. Yet hard ROI remains elusive: just a quarter report lower service costs or higher quality so far, pointing to immature governance and contracting frameworks.
Selective insourcing rises for quality and IP protection
Seventy per cent of companies have repatriated some previously outsourced work in the last five years, usually less than 25% of total scope. However, motives have shifted from cost to capability. Executives say tighter quality control (68%) and rebuilding internal expertise (64%) now outweigh pure savings.
Importantly, 82% still rate their remaining vendor partnerships as effective, signalling a move toward “right-sourcing” rather than a wholesale retreat.
GICs and the BOTT model fuel hybrid talent strategies
Global In-House Centers (GICs) are back in fashion: 78% of surveyed firms already operate a captive centre and nearly three-quarters plan to expand investment. Half of these adopters favour the Build-Operate-Transform-Transfer (BOTT) model, using third-party expertise to stand up a facility before taking full ownership.
Deloitte notes that well-run GICs give companies the cultural alignment and IP security of insourcing while preserving the labour-arbitrage benefits of offshore locations.
Contracts and governance lag behind ambition
Meanwhile, only 43% of enterprises include AI-specific terms in their outsourcing contracts, and fewer than one in four ties pricing to efficiency outcomes.
Deloitte recommends “gain-sharing” clauses or co-development of intellectual property so both client and provider have incentives to press automation further. It also urges expanding the remit of the vendor-management office to oversee the entire “extended workforce”—employees, bots, vendors and GICs alike.
Outlook: multidimensional sourcing
With 80% of executives poised to maintain or increase third-party spend even as insourcing and GICs accelerate, talent strategy is no longer binary. The emerging model is multidimensional: orchestrating external partners, captive centres, and a growing digital workforce through tighter governance and outcome-based contracts.
Organizations that master this mix, Deloitte argues, will be best placed to capture AI’s promised productivity gains while safeguarding quality, culture, and intellectual capital.
