CX outsourcers bet big on AI amid slow returns: Nearshore Americas
FLORIDA, UNITED STATES — Global customer-experience (CX) outsourcing firms are ramping up investments in artificial intelligence (AI), yet early earnings reports indicate that the sector is facing a delicate balance between ambition and financial reality, according to a report from Nearshore Americas.
While AI promises to transform operations and drive efficiency, executives warn that returns are slower than expected and margin pressures remain a significant challenge.
AI adoption gains traction, returns lag
Accenture Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Julie Sweet described the company’s AI initiatives as “historic,” highlighting $69.7 billion in revenue for fiscal 2025.
“We have worked on more than 6,000 advanced AI projects just this year,” Sweet said in Accenture’s fiscal-2025 earnings call, adding that over half a million employees have been trained in generative AI fundamentals.
She emphasized that advanced AI is becoming an integral part of everything they do but cautioned that the technology is still in its early stages.
“It is very early innings, however you look at it,” Sweet noted.
“Value realization has been underwhelming for many, and enterprise adoption at scale is slow other than with digital natives,” Sweet added.
Teleperformance Deputy CEO Thomas Mackenbrock echoed this realism, noting that the company had launched more than 400 AI projects in the past nine months, including 150 in the last quarter. He described AI as practical and outcome-driven.
“It is not an abstract concept. We are deploying AI solutions on our client operations that drive outcomes,” Mackenbrock said, as quoted by Nearshore Americas.
Balancing efficiency, costs, and human expertise
While AI is seen as a driver of operational efficiency, upfront investment and wage inflation are testing profit margins. Concentrix CEO Chris Caldwell admitted that transformation costs are unavoidable.
“We are transforming ourselves with the same technologies we deliver,” Caldwell said, as quoted by Nearshore Americas.
Teleperformance CFO Olivier Rigaudy noted strong growth in AI-enabled back-office solutions but acknowledged that profitability is challenging to forecast monthly.
Across the industry, leaders stressed the importance of blending human expertise with AI capabilities.
Mackenbrock highlighted the hybrid approach, describing Teleperformance’s strategy as “a combination of agentic AI driving outcomes while combining it with the human ingenuity and the human competence that we have in the organization.”
“Helping clients with all of this work is what is driving our growth, and our pipeline of large-scale transformations continues to grow,” Sweet added.
As the outsourcing industry navigates this transitional period, it is clear that AI is becoming central to future strategies. While early returns may be modest, the integration of human skills with intelligent automation positions firms to unlock new efficiencies and expand client services.
The efficiency-growth cycle, executives suggest, will likely define the next era of CX outsourcing, proving that AI, when paired with human insight, may ultimately deliver on its transformative promise.
