Outsourcing Trends for 2026: AI, GCCs, and Global Delivery Models

Outsourcing models are entering a more complex and strategic phase as companies accelerate digital transformation, embed artificial intelligence into core business processes, and reassess global delivery strategies amid heightened regulatory, geopolitical, and operational pressures. What were once primarily cost-driven, labor-based arrangements are increasingly becoming integrated operating models that combine technology deployment, analytics, compliance, and resilience.

On January 7, 2026, our technology transactions, outsourcing, and commercial contracts team held a webinar on outsourcing trends for the new year. This Insight examines those trends, with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI) regulation, global capability centers (GCCs), and evolving global delivery models. It also highlights the legal considerations for companies to consider as sourcing relationships become more regulated, data-driven, and business-critical.

KEY OUTSOURCING TRENDS FOR 2026

Digital Transformation Outsourcing Accelerates

Digital transformation continues to drive outsourcing activity, but AI and intelligent automation are reshaping both the scope and complexity of these engagements. Rather than simply migrating legacy processes, companies are increasingly relying on outsourcing partners to redesign business processes, modernize operating models, and integrate AI-enabled tools directly into service delivery.

Outsourcing providers are also entering the market with proprietary AI solutions, ranging from automated finance and accounting tools to customer service analytics platforms, blurring the line between traditional services and technology deployment. As a result, outsourcing agreements should now address issues such as AI governance, data quality, human-in-the-loop requirements, intellectual property ownership, and exit planning for AI-enabled solutions.

Managed Cloud and Security Services Become Core

As workloads continue to migrate to the cloud, demand for managed cloud services has grown sharply. Clients increasingly expect outsourcing providers to manage, monitor, and optimize complex cloud environments while ensuring compliance with sector-specific regulatory regimes.

At the same time, managed security services have become a core component of outsourcing strategies. Monitoring, threat detection, incident response, and regulatory compliance are now central to vendor selection. Many organizations are reassessing whether to separate security services from broader infrastructure outsourcing to enhance independence and oversight, while others continue to pursue integrated, end-to-end models.

From a legal perspective, these arrangements require careful attention to service levels, audit rights, incident notification obligations, and alignment with regulatory and risk management frameworks.

Outcome-Based Models

Pricing and performance models are evolving to align with business requirements. Companies are increasingly tying compensation to business outcomes such as customer satisfaction, reduced call volumes, or revenue uplift, rather than transaction-based metrics alone. These value-linked models introduce new considerations around data integrity, performance measurement, shared risk and reward, and liability allocation.

These models not only require innovative pricing mechanisms but also different scope descriptions and performance metrics.  In order to monitor and evaluate outcome-based models, the parties are rethinking the scope of reporting requirements, termination rights, and audit scope.

Hybrid Delivery and Global Capability Centers

Hybrid delivery models continue to gain traction as organizations balance managed services, staff augmentation, and in-house delivery. Build-operate-transfer structures and GCCs are increasingly used to retain greater control over talent, intellectual property, and strategic priorities while maintaining cost efficiencies.

However, GCCs present a distinct legal risk profile compared to traditional outsourcing. Companies should consider local employment laws, enforceable IP assignment mechanisms, data governance requirements, tax and transfer pricing considerations, and operational resilience planning. Concentration risk, geopolitical developments, and workforce disruptions further heighten the need for thoughtful governance and exit strategies.

Strategic Support from Providers

Outsourcing providers are increasingly expected to deliver more than operational execution. Advanced analytics, business intelligence, and AI-driven insights are becoming integral to service offerings, enabling clients to make data-driven strategic decisions.

As providers assume more advisory and analytics-focused roles, contracts should clearly define ownership and use of data outputs, address confidentiality and competitive concerns, and allocate responsibility for the accuracy and reliability of analytical insights.

OUTSOURCING IN THE AGE OF AI REGULATION

AI regulation is materially altering the risk profile of outsourcing arrangements.  AI-enabled outsourcing can constitute a regulated activity, even for companies operating outside traditionally regulated industries. These regulations are imposing direct obligations on AI providers and deployers, extending compliance responsibilities across the outsourcing chain.

AI-related regulations are in the process of being enacted, with a global patchwork developing in the major outsourcing jurisdictions around the globe, including the United States, Europe, and the United Kingdom, which is a particular complication for multi-jurisdictional, long-term outsourcing agreements.  We may see geographically divergent service solutions within outsourcing agreements in order to ensure that AI use aligns with local regulations, and outsourcing agreements will have to accommodate—and allocate commercial responsibility for—regulatory change in this space. 

In the European Union, the EU AI Act introduces a framework that distinguishes between AI system “providers” and “deployers,” with many obligations—particularly for high-risk systems—falling on providers. In outsourcing contexts, this distinction often places outsourcing vendors squarely within the scope of regulatory obligations, even when they rely on third-party tools or large language models.

Key legal considerations include:

• Regulatory flow-down: Ensuring outsourcing providers’ AI governance frameworks align with applicable laws and regulatory expectations
• Contractual risk allocation: Addressing AI use disclosures, compliance representations, audit rights, sub-outsourcing controls, indemnities, and termination rights tied to regulatory breaches
• Cross-border data transfers: Managing heightened scrutiny over personal data used for AI training across jurisdictions with divergent regulatory regimes

BUILDING RESILIENCE INTO GLOBAL OUTSOURCING STRATEGIES

Geopolitical uncertainty, major service outages, talent disruption, and post-COVID consolidation initiatives are driving renewed focus on resilience in outsourcing strategies. Outsourcing contracts and operating models should be designed and structured to support optionality and enable flexibility, continuity, and access to talent, even as geopolitics and labor markets keep evolving.  An effective resilience strategy is as important as ever while companies look to consolidate locations and vendors in the post-COVID-19 era and minimize single points of failure.

Effective resilience should not just be a general promise from service providers in the form of an untested business continuity plan that sits in a document repository.  In today’s environment, resilience should be a design requirement that is embedded in operating models and enforceable in outsourcing contracts through portability, redundancy, and recoverability. 

Key contractual and planning considerations include:

• Can we move work to a new location without a contract amendment?
• Do we have a live service location and subcontractor register?
• Are recovery time objective (RTO)/recovery point objective (RPO) and disaster recovery (DR) tests mandatory and audited?
• Do we have surge capacity terms with defined activation times?
• Is knowledge transfer measurable (artifacts + training + shadowing)?
• Does the exit plan include priced transition assistance and tooling handover?
• Do we have governance triggers for geopolitical/regulatory shifts?
• If we build a GCC, do we have clean rights to rebalance scope and a structured transfer model (BOT)?

LOOKING AHEAD

Outsourcing in 2026 will continue to evolve from a transactional cost-saving tool into a strategic lever for digital transformation, AI adoption, and global growth. As these relationships become more complex and regulated, early and coordinated legal involvement is critical.

By aligning outsourcing strategies with evolving regulatory frameworks, thoughtful risk allocation, and robust governance structures, companies can position themselves to capture the benefits of innovation while managing the legal and operational risks inherent in next-generation sourcing models.

HOW WE CAN HELP

Our technology transactions, outsourcing, and commercial contracts lawyers stand ready to advise businesses on complex global sourcing strategies, AI-enabled services, and evolving regulatory risk. If you have questions about the issues discussed above or would like to explore how these trends may affect your organization, please contact any member of our Tech & Sourcing team.