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Perspective
2025 Deloitte’s Global Business Services (GBS) Survey
Discover how organizations today are positioning themselves at the forefront of business transformation. Our latest survey highlights five powerful trends toward more agile, digital, and cost-efficient global business services (GBS) organizations.
Five key survey findings
- Over the next three years, organizations are looking to increasingly focus on developing next-gen capabilities and accelerating digital initiatives.
- Among organizations prioritizing next-gen capability development, approximately 50% have GBS centers in India, where there is significant deployment of digital and data capabilities.
- Enhancing customer experience is becoming a top priority for GBS organizations to drive customer loyalty and differentiate themselves in a competitive market.
- GBS leader responsibilities differ. Global GBS leaders are setting strategic direction, while functional and regional leaders are focusing on operational excellence and enhancing the customer experience.
- Approximately 55% of organizations with a global GBS leader role have achieved over 20% average savings, highlighting the value of strong leadership, governance, and effective decision-making.
- Global business services organizations are prioritizing investments in process improvement and technology—such as GenAI, automation, and analytics dashboards—to achieve key objectives. These include process standardization and efficiency, cost reduction, and improved end-to-end ownership.
- Approximately 58% of respondents have already begun (or are planning to begin) their GenAI journey. Finance and information technology were the top functions where use cases such as chatbot/AI tools, invoice management, and analytics have been implemented.
- India, the United States, and Poland are the top three GBS locations and have consistently remained on top over the years. India continues to be the preferred location across all major functions.
- Portugal has emerged as a location for global business services delivery and has entered the top 10 preferred countries in the latest survey.
- Mexico has risen to be among the top three preferred locations due to technology and talent availability, scalability, and competitive cost.
- 50% of global business services organizations are planning to increase their footprint, driven by new functions and market needs.
- GBS organizations continue to face talent challenges such as skill set gaps, high turnover, and increased labor costs.
- Some initiatives led by GBS organizations to attract and retain talent include developing a strong culture, adjusting compensation to market benchmarks, and increasing well-being opportunities (for example, a hybrid working model).
Key trends: Customer-centric digital capabilities with an ESG focus
Sonal Bhagia
Managing Director | Enterprise Services and Location Strategy
Chau Jiun Deng
Enterprise Business Services & Location Strategy
