BPO Briefings: Keeping Up with the Pace of Change

The CCMA’s latest BPO Briefing, supported by The Knowledge Group (TKG), brought together senior leaders from across the UK’s BPO sector for an open and candid conversation. The mood was one of cautious pragmatism – an industry that knows the ground is shifting and is working hard to stay ahead.

A year ago, there was real anxiety about the direction of the UK BPO market. This time, uncertainty hasn’t disappeared, but there’s a sharper sense of what questions need answering and the challenges that need overcoming.

Cost pressures continue to bite – particularly around UK employment – and while there are signs of onshoring activity returning, the room was clear-eyed that for every headline win, another contract can quietly head in the opposite direction.

The real debate isn’t simply onshore versus offshore. It’s about where human expertise adds value, and at what cost. Technology is changing that equation rapidly, and the consensus was that artificial intelligence taking on all elements of the contact centre interaction remains some way off. Simple queries and transactions, yes. The highly complex and emotionally nuanced? Not yet.

The AI Reality Check

There was a healthy dose of realism in the room about AI’s trajectory. The divide between optimists and sceptics that defined the conversation at previous BPO Briefings has narrowed – not because the sceptics have disappeared, but because the honest answer is: nobody is completely sure of the timelines around AI. The speed of change is unflinching, but understanding what end-goals might look like in the face of so much disruption is something even the most experienced analysts of futurists are struggling to tackle.

New solutions are arriving faster than many organisations can implement and absorb them, creating a gap between what’s theoretically possible and what’s operationally real. However, what is clear is that Agent Assist tools are working well for some organisations, but by no means delivering at scale just yet. The organisations making the most progress are those treating BPOs as the frontline of implementation.

Finding a Niche

One of the sharpest threads in the discussion was the question of differentiation. In a market being reshaped by technology, those who succeed will be those who are clear about what makes them different – whether that’s a sector specialism, a call type, a delivery model, or a distinctive AI capability. Knowing your niche, and making sure the market knows and understand it too, is becoming a strategic necessity, not just a marketing exercise.

Trust was the other constant. Whether it’s customers accepting AI-assisted interactions or clients committing to technology-forward partnerships, nothing moves without it. Building and protecting that trust – with people, with clients, and with customers – remains the work that algorithms can’t yet shortcut.