Every GBS leader is facing the same problem: how do you build an AI strategy when the technology moves faster than any organization can absorb it? Chasing every new breakthrough isn’t a strategy, and history suggests it’s a reliable way to accumulate technical debt.

In this episode of GBS Rewired, Sally Fletcher talks with Leigh Nicholson, Strategic Solutions Lead at Takeda Global Finance CoE. Leigh’s career spans large-scale transformation at PwC and GBS transition and transformation leadership at Heineken and Philips. He has lived through the ERP and RPA waves and is now navigating the shift to Agentic AI, so he knows what separates lasting transformations from those that quietly fall apart.

The conversation covers what earlier automation waves got wrong and what GBS leaders need to unlearn before AI can scale. It also covers the foundations that have to be in place before quick wins turn into fragmented solutions. Leigh weighs in on the growing debate over who should own AI (IT, the business, or a partnership between them) and on how to divide responsibilities without duplicating capabilities or creating new silos. He explains why governance has to be designed in from the start rather than bolted on later. Finally, he describes how leaders can stay genuinely optimistic about AI while keeping the critical thinking this moment demands.

Learn more about Hypatos and our Agentic AI Workforce here.

Follow host Sally Fletcher on LinkedIn for episode updates.

What does a GBS team actually look like when half of transactional work is automated? In this episode, Shaji Farooq, CEO of Chazey Partners, joins the podcast to unpack the new people strategy for a human-led, AI-enabled world. We explore where leaders are getting the balance between people and AI wrong, what "human-led" really means when agents make the first call on most decisions, and how the profile of a good hire is changing. We also look at how org charts, reporting lines and spans of control are being redrawn as manual work thins out.

To learn more about Chazey Partners, visit their website here.

As Agentic AI moves from concept to capability, the hardest part of GBS leadership isn't the technology; it's the judgment required to deploy it well. In this episode of GBS Rewired, host Sally Fletcher sits down with Dr. Sumit Mitra, CEO of Tesco Business Solutions, to unpack what an Agentic or "Intelligent GBS" really looks like in practice: how to manage hybrid human-agent teams, which tasks should never be automated, and the practical steps leaders can take right now to get ahead of the curve. Drawing on Tesco Business Solutions' track record, including two wins of SSON's World's Best GBS and seven consecutive years in SSON's Top 20 Most Admired GBS, Sumit shares what separates a good GBS from a truly great one.

Agentic AI is transforming Global Business Services: but are you budgeting for the hidden cost behind every AI decision?

In this episode, Sally Fletcher sits down with Hypatos CEO Uli Erxleben to explore the growing impact of AI token costs. As organizations scale AI agents across finance and shared services, token consumption can quickly become one of the biggest drivers of operating costs.

Discover why falling token prices don't necessarily mean lower AI bills, how token economics should influence build-versus-buy decisions, and what leading organizations are doing to control costs through smarter deployment and outcome-based pricing.

Whether you're leading GBS, finance transformation, or enterprise AI initiatives, this conversation will change how you think about the true cost of Agentic AI.

Read more about managing token costs here.

Register for our next webinar on Securing Agentic AI at Scale.

In this episode, Frank Schüler, Managing Director of Global Business Services at DHL Global Forwarding, shares how he leads one of the world's largest GBS organizations, supporting global operations with 6,000 people, 160 automation bots, and AI-driven innovation. He explores the rise of agentic AI, managing a hybrid workforce of people and digital workers, and the leadership principles behind building a high-performing, people-first organization.

Learn more about Hypatos and our Agentic AI Workforce here.

Follow host Sally Fletcher on LinkedIn for episode updates.

Many GBS leaders still lead with "we save money," but is that still the right pitch? In this episode, Steve Rudderham, SVP GBS at Ecolab, joins us to talk about the shift from cost center to value engine. Drawing on his experience leading GBS organizations at Carrier, AkzoNobel, Kellogg's, and now Ecolab, Steve explains why "we save money" is the flip-phone version of the conversation, where agentic AI is already moving the needle on revenue and customer outcomes, and his honest take on the "our data isn't ready" excuse.

In this episode, we cover:

• What separates a world-class GBS from a transactional service center — and how that shift shows up internally at Ecolab
• Why automation doesn't have to mean headcount reduction, and what the role of people looks like in an Agentic GBS
• Accountability in an agentic world: who owns the outcome when AI agents act autonomously, and when "good enough" data is good enough to start

Data quality isn't the most glamorous topic in enterprise AI — but it might be the most important one. In this episode, Sally Fletcher, Head of Thought Leadership & Community, Hypatos, sits down with Vandana Khanna, a global finance and technology leader at MetLife who is leading the company's Finance Modernization and Digital Transformation initiative. With experience spanning insurance, consumer goods, telecom, and retail, Vandana brings a rare blend of strategic vision and operational reality to one of AI's most underestimated challenges.

We dig into what "AI-ready" actually means in practice, why bad data is so costly and so hard to catch, and how leaders can navigate the politics of data ownership inside large organizations. From the minimum data-quality bar for a successful AI implementation to the structural changes that would have the greatest downstream impact, this is a candid conversation about the unglamorous groundwork that determines whether AI succeeds or fails.

If you're under pressure to move fast with AI, this episode is essential listening.

If you want to learn more about how to implement Agentic AI, download our whitepaper here.

Everyone's running AI pilots, but how many are actually delivering real business impact? In this episode, we're joined by Sefa Soybir, Senior Manager and Agentic GBS Lead at EY, where he helps organisations move beyond the hype and embed agentic AI into real business processes.

We get into what separates a genuinely compelling AI use case from one that just looks good in a demo, and the criteria Sefa recommends before greenlighting any agentic initiative. We also tackle one of the hardest parts of AI transformation — realising the downstream impact. Automation rates and productivity stats are one thing, but how do those numbers actually translate into business value? And what do you do with the headcount you've released?

We'll also cover the human side: smoothing out change management, bringing employees on the journey, and securing executive buy-in for something as ambiguous and fast-moving as agentic AI. If you're trying to build credible AI initiatives that stick, this one's for you.