Shared Services & Outsourcing Week Europe has published new industry data suggesting AI is moving quickly from experimentation to operational planning across shared services.
The findings, released ahead of SSOW Europe 2026 in Portugal in May, are based on responses from more than 400 senior professionals and form part of The State of the Shared Services Industry Report 2026. According to the report, 38% of organisations expect agentic AI to replace some captive shared services activities within the next three years, while a further 46% are considering deployment. Together, that means 84% of respondents expect AI to affect the sector over that period.
The data also points to a broader change in how shared services are being judged. Cost optimisation remains the dominant measure of value, cited by 85% of respondents, and customer satisfaction follows at 72%. But the report indicates that growth-based measures are gaining ground, with organisations increasingly linking shared services to volume growth, revenue improvement, working capital, and margin performance. That shift matters because it suggests the function is being evaluated less as a back-office efficiency engine and more as a contributor to enterprise performance.
Signs of greater maturity are also visible in automation. Most respondents, 57%, now place themselves at a medium level of automation maturity, and a further 9% say they are at a high level. SSOW Europe says that marks a notable move on from 2025, when the majority described themselves as sitting at a low to early-medium stage. Shared services remain heavily used in finance, particularly across order-to-cash and purchase-to-pay, but the model is also expanding into payroll, benefits administration, data management, and business analytics.
Cathy Gu, Event Director at SSOW Europe, said: “The report shows that while shared services are always changing, AI is set to significantly transform the sector. The vast majority of respondents are now either actively exploring or considering how AI can be integrated to drive more improvements and better outcomes.
“The organisations that lead the next phase will be those that measure, communicate, and deliver value that the enterprise truly cares about. The shift toward maturity suggests shared services are becoming more central to businesses, and we are now entering an era where the focus will be on scale, capability, and digital investment, integrating tools like AI, strategically.”
The report also highlights a structural issue. More than half of respondents still allocate shared services costs mainly through full-time equivalent models, while outcome-based pricing remains rare. That creates a measurement gap at a time when organisations are asking these functions to support growth, decision-making, and digital transformation as well as efficiency.
The event’s agenda and registration details are available here.
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