Agentic AI
AI
From Automation to Autonomy: Why GBS Is Hitting Its Next S-Curve of Innovation
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AI pilots are stalling not because of technology limits, but because enterprises have yet to redesign GBS operating models for true agentic execution.
SSOW Berlin confirmed what many GBS and Finance leaders already sense. AI experimentation is everywhere, but value realization is rare. The issue is not the technology. It is the operating model. Most organizations are still applying automation logic to agentic systems. They are optimizing steps instead of redesigning execution. As a result, pilots multiply while impact stalls.
This gap explains the growing disconnect. 70-80% of finance processes are technically executable by AI agents within the next 3-5 years. Yet most enterprises remain trapped in pilots with no material financial return. Value only emerges when work is re-architected end to end and agents are orchestrated within a new GBS operating system.
The industry is approaching the ceiling of the legacy S-curve. ERP-centric workflows, partial automation, and fragmented tooling have delivered efficiency gains, but the marginal returns are declining. Extending this model will not unlock the next wave of value.
What stood out at SSOW Berlin was not enthusiasm for AI, but recognition of a deeper shift. Leading organizations are moving from digital execution to agentic execution. In this model, agents do not follow predefined steps. They coordinate, retain context, collaborate across systems, and drive outcomes. They operate across P2P, O2C, R2R, and H2R rather than within functional silos.
This changes the role of people. Human teams move from execution to supervision, exception handling, and quality control of autonomous digital workforces. This is not incremental improvement. It is a new operating architecture.
Most failures to scale AI are self-inflicted. Common patterns include building isolated agents per process, constraining agents to a single model, underestimating governance requirements, and failing to recognize GBS as the natural platform for agentic transformation. The surprise is not that scaling is hard. The surprise is how long organizations have tried to avoid redesigning the system of work itself.
GBS sits at the intersection of volume, data, process complexity, and measurable ROI. No other function is better positioned to lead the transition to agentic execution. What has been missing is a unifying operating model that replaces task automation with outcome ownership. That model is now emerging.
At Hypatos, we believe the future of GBS is an Agentic GBS Operating System. One coordinated environment where AI agents, human oversight, and enterprise systems function as a single execution layer.
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This is not about adding AI features. It is about orchestration, governance, and scale. It is about enabling autonomous execution while maintaining control, transparency, and accountability.
SSOW Berlin made one thing clear: competitive advantage will come from those who architect the next system of work, not those who continue incrementally tuning the old one.
The question for leadership is no longer whether to adopt AI. It is whether you are designing your next S-curve or extending a declining one. Organizations that answer this now will define the next decade of GBS performance.
The next generation of GBS will be defined by an Agentic GBS Operating System. This is an orchestrated environment where humans supervise and guide while agents handles the work across P2P, O2C, R2R, H2R, and beyond.
In this complimentary executive workshop for GBS executives, we guide your team through your agentic opportunities in your process landscape and show the roadmap that will allow your enterprise to achieve outcomes that only agentic GBS can deliver.
You can sign up for our GBS OS Executive Briefing here.
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