Operational Excellence in the World of AI
The BPO Reversal
Your BPO Deal Was Built for a World Before AI
Most BPO deals rest on one idea: work costs less somewhere else. AI changes that math.
Today, AI changes what can be automated, what you can own, and how work gets delivered. The deal you signed may no longer be your best option.
So ask one question: if you had the choice, would you build the same operation today?
You do have the choice. Each renewal you sign without asking that question makes the old model harder and more costly to change.
The BPO Reversal gives leaders a clear way to make that choice. It does not argue for bringing work back in house. It helps you choose the right path for work that is already outsourced. It starts at the ROOT!
The ROOT Assessment tests four things before you sign again.
The answers point to the right path: Retain, Renegotiate, Reinsource, or Reinvent.
Readiness
Is your provider ready for AI, Are you?
Ownership
Who owns the outcome when it goes wrong?
Name who is accountable, who
carries the risk, and who controls
the process knowledge.
Outsourcing Fit
Would you outsource this work if you decided today?
Test each process against
today’s costs, technology, and
business needs, not the
conditions of the original deal.
Readiness
Is your provider ready for AI, Are you?
Get to the ROOT. Then determine the path forward.
- Retain: The current BPO model continues to deliver value and remains fit for purpose.
- Renegotiate: Outsourcing still makes sense, but the scope, economics, performance expectations, or terms need to change.
- Reinsource: Some or all of the tasks may create greater value inside the enterprise, provided the organization is ready to take them back.
- Reinvent: Redesign the work, not just the workforce
Operational Insights Based on Real-World Experience
AI Changes the Work
The Operating Model
Decides the Results
Most AI programs do not fail on technology. They fail on the operating model.
Dina L. Bingham has spent more than 25 years improving how large organizations run. At IBM, she rose from data center lead to Partner and Executive Market Leader. She led global operations, managed services, and transformation work.
She has made these calls from both sides: running IBM’s own global operations, and advising clients as a provider. She knows what to outsource, what to keep inside, and how the operating model must change to support it.
Her view is simple: operating model decisions come before technology decisions. Before leaders invest in AI, she helps them ask one question: What is the right operating model for what comes next? Then she helps them make the change show up in the results.
Dina completed the UC Berkeley Haas Chief Operating Officer Program and the MIT AI Executive Academy. She also holds executive education credentials from Harvard and Wharton.
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