Managing Talent Across Borders: From Organizations to Ecosystems

The new frontier of the digital transformation is balancing digital workers, outsourcing, and insourcing.

The old outsourcing dilemma of build versus buy is already a time capsule of the recent past. In its 2024 survey of 500 global executives on talent sourcing, Deloitte found that digital transformation and the pace of emerging technologies are forcing organizations to rethink how they source and manage capabilities. As a result, we are seeing the development of ecosystems of talent that include traditional employees, outsourcing partners, global in-house centers, and now, AI-powered “digital workers.” 

However, many organizations are struggling to manage multiple talent streams while expanding into new geographic regions. As I have written before in Forbes, we need to make sure we are measuring the right things when a lot of outsourcing has shifted to roles that were traditionally seen as strategic. We are also now engaging in values-based relationships across borders, not just cost-cutting partnerships. 

I am a big advocate of looking beyond traditional outsourcing hubs to growing regions like South America and Africa, but this only highlights the need for new frameworks for building and managing these talent ecosystems. Here are the four key shifts driving this transformation identified by Deloitte—and that organizations must master.

1. The Rise of AI-Powered Outsourcing

Traditional outsourcing contracts and governance models were not designed for partnerships where AI makes autonomous decisions that affect business operations in real-time. As Deloitte noted, while 83% of executives are leveraging AI as part of their outsourced services, adoption is virtually table stakes in utilities (98%), financial services (96%), and energy (96%). Yet only 20% have developed a strategy for managing these digital workers.

This gap between adoption and strategy explains why less than half of these organizations were seeing real productivity gains, and only about a quarter were registering cost reductions or quality improvements. The transformation is more fundamental than many realize: We are moving from outsourcing human tasks to licensing digital workers—both robotic process automation (RPA) for routine tasks and AI agents that can make autonomous decisions

We need to approach AI as a new type of workforce that requires its own management framework that can adapt to change and ensure gains are built into partnership agreements. This means developing contracts that address AI services directly, allow for productivity-based price reductions, and recognize joint intellectual property development. 

2. The Return of Insourcing

With outsourcing no longer a one-and-done deal, leaders now need to find the right balance of outsourcing and insourcing to guide their digital transformation. For instance, Global In-house Centers (GICs) are regaining momentum, particularly in B2B sectors where customer demands require more responsive service. 

The so-called Build, Operate, Transform, and Transfer (BOTT) model is also allowing organizations to tap into third-party expertise to set up, optimize, and transform their IT and business functions. However, the express goal of this form of global shared services delivery is to bring control back in-house.

IBM offers a case study in the thinking behind insourcing. When the company decided to exit third-party managed data centers, it generated over $12 million in annual savings. But that was just one outcome as part of a broader strategic move to simplify IT architecture and develop its own teams. 

After hiring and training 400 specialists, transferring knowledge across 2,000 hours of sessions, and modernizing talent management, IBM showed it’s possible to build new internal capabilities while maintaining business continuity. But sustaining these gains requires shifting how we measure success.

3. Value Over Volume

The most successful partnerships look at both quantitative and qualitative factors. High employee retention rates maintain expertise and relationships, while innovation capabilities and the ability to drive business transformation create lasting value. That’s partly why the metrics of outsourcing cannot be reduced to cost reduction alone. 

While back-office outsourcing remains common, organizations are increasingly focusing on front-office capabilities like sales, marketing, and R&D. Because these roles are human-centered and to avoid outsourcing partners becoming silos, we must treat these employees with the same respect—and ensure they are as much a part of the culture—as local staff. 

Even for purely automated services, the growth of digital workers cannot happen in a relationship vacuum. Leaders must show up for their global teams overseeing these systems and nurture those bonds if we are to keep senior staff and benefit from stronger organizational loyalty. 

4. Reimagining the Extended Workforce

Deloitte is very deliberate in its language about how to manage today’s extended workforce. It is effectively an ecosystem that needs to be “orchestrated.” There are so many moving parts to complex networks, and responsibilities are getting blurred across boundaries. I strongly believe that servant leadership can harmonize the work product and focus of outsourcing partners, global in-house centers, and digital workers. 

As a leader, I have found offering simple messages of empowerment while working closely with teams helps people see their unique role in the bigger picture of an organization’s strategic direction. Leaders must show up on time, listen patiently (even when they think they know the answer), and invest in face-to-face interactions. These fundamentals of relationship building become even more important as organizations coordinate diverse talents across different locations and timezones.

We have left behind the build-versus-buy argument, and the misguided idea that leaders must choose between human and digital capabilities. But for me, one thing has not changed—the future of work still requires building and nurturing relationships across the talent ecosystem.