Global Business Services Accelerating GBS Transformation: Insights from PwC’s 2025 Study
Global Business Services (GBS) have moved well beyond back‑office cost reduction; as voiced by global GBS leaders, they are now strategic engines that catalyse innovation, elevate customer experience, and deliver decision‑ready insights to shape enterprise strategy.
Now in its eighth edition, PwC’s Global Business Services report amplifies the perspectives of leading GBS executives worldwide—distilling benchmarks, proven practices and lessons learned—into a practical, decision‑ready resource for Australian organisations seeking to balance cost pressures with the accelerating demand for efficiency and innovation, and to inform Australia’s strategic discussion.
What this means for the Australian Market
Australia’s market demands higher productivity under tight costs and better use of its regional edge. With Asia-Pacific proximity and a skilled workforce, organisations should position GBS as a strategic hub, not a back office. Targeted investment in Agentic solutions and autonomous, orchestrated AI agents with strong guardrails will speed decisions, cut manual hand-offs, and enable self-optimising, scalable operations. To capture this, Australian organisations should require outsourcing partners to commit to outcomes, drive automation-led efficiencies, take end-to-end accountability, and co-innovate so GBS centres deliver measurable value, speed, and resilience.
Discover Key Findings Driving GBS Transformation:
- From Cost Centre to Capability Powerhouse: GBS are evolving into Global Capability Centres (GCCs), moving beyond cost savings to focus on strategic value, risk management, and innovation. Over 50% of GBS organisations are now integral to strategic planning.
- Dynamic Operating Models: The shift from single-site models continues, with 39% of GBS organisations now leveraging multi-functional operations across global locations to balance cost, talent, and resilience.
- Modern Outsourcing Redefined: The rise of AI and changing cost dynamics are prompting a re-evaluation of traditional BPO. Organisations are increasingly leveraging AI-powered internal capabilities to replace external services, focusing on outcome-based partnerships and insourcing where strategic value and efficiency can be maximised.
- Digital Acceleration is Key: Digital transformation is a non-negotiable for GBS. An impressive 72% of organisations are actively implementing automation, with AI and advanced analytics reshaping operations for efficiency and innovation.
- Measuring Value Beyond Savings: In addition to cost efficiency, which 90% of respondents identify as crucial, GBS leaders increasingly prioritise customer satisfaction, a priority for 89% and reflecting a focus on strategic impact. 85% of stakeholders report that GBS meets or exceeds expectations.
PwC’s latest insights highlight that enterprises adopting GBS as a strategic lever are better equipped to navigate uncertainty and capitalise on emerging opportunities in a rapidly changing marketplace.
Download the report now and lead your organisation’s next phase of transformation with confidence.
Further findings of the study at a glance
- How are GBS organised?
- What do GBS focus on in order to be perceived as drivers of innovation?
- What do companies look for when choosing a location for GBS?
- What are companies focusing on in their future location strategy?
- Which skills are particularly in demand in GBS?
How are GBS organised?
More and more GBS are developing into multifunctional centres with a global presence that take on end-to-end processes and expert functions: 82 per cent of GBS are now multifunctional. In contrast, the proportion of purely single-function centres is steadily declining: over the past four years, the figure has fallen from 25 to 13 per cent. This is an indication that more and more business areas are recognising the added value of GBS and structuring their organisations accordingly.
What do GBS focus on in order to be perceived as drivers of innovation?
In order to be perceived as genuine drivers of innovation, 79 per cent of respondents focus on the implementation of new technologies – an area in which GBS are particularly well positioned due to their structure. In addition, they are attempting to further increase the level of competence of the services they offer through so-called ‘centres of excellence’ (CoEs) and their further development into global capability centres. Seven out of ten respondents emphasise that GBS organisations should prioritise stakeholder management in order to improve collaboration between the functions remaining in the company and the GBS units.
What do companies look for when choosing a location for GBS?
When selecting locations for GBS, the most important criterion is whether there is a qualified workforce available locally. 96 per cent of respondents consider this point to be important or very important. 88 per cent of respondents consider labour costs and the language skills of employees to be decisive factors. Other factors that are consistently rated highly by respondents include the political and economic stability of a location, a functioning infrastructure, digital skills, and the quality awareness and ambitions of the workforce.
What are companies focusing on in their future location strategy?
Most companies (83 per cent) are focusing on strengthening and scaling their existing GBS locations. Almost half of those surveyed (45 per cent) want to rely on hybrid delivery models that combine onshore, nearshore and offshore elements. Just under one in four companies (23 per cent) plans to outsource to external service providers, while one in five wants to open new nearshore/offshore locations (19 per cent). More innovative or disruptive models such as virtual centres are currently only being considered by a small proportion of companies (16 per cent) and remain niche strategies for the time being.
Which skills are particularly in demand in GBS?
The requirements for employees in GBS have also changed significantly: three out of four companies consider data analysis skills to be particularly important – a clear sign that data-driven decision-making is now central to GBS. Knowledge of process automation and robotic process automation (RPA) is cited as a key skill by 66 per cent of respondents. 54 per cent value expertise in the field of (generative) artificial intelligence. This is hardly surprising, as many GBS functions, particularly in accounting and procurement, have long relied on AI and RPA.
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