Global economic volatility, regulatory pressures and rapidly shifting consumer expectations have made operational resilience a board-level priority for Manufacturing and Retail & Consumer Packaged Goods (MRCPG) companies. Traditional shared services models, designed primarily for cost arbitrage, are no longer sufficient.

Global Business Services (GBS) provides a proven pathway forward. It consolidates processes to create resilience, but more importantly, it unlocks value creation beyond cost savings. In MRCPG, where margins are tight, consumer preferences are fickle and regulatory requirements are multiplying, GBS has emerged as both a platform for efficiency and a lever for growth. From orchestrating supply chains to powering Revenue Growth Management (RGM), GBS is at the heart of how leading brands remain competitive.

Deloitte’s 2025 global survey of 2,000+ organizations found that retail and consumer products lead all industries in Global Business Services (GBS) adoption, accounting for nearly a quarter of all respondents.¹ This underscores the sector’s pioneering role in scaling GBS as a model for resilience, efficiency and innovation.

This elevation of GBS to a boardroom agenda item reflects its growing role as a governance hub for regulatory compliance and sustainability reporting, issues that are now inseparable from enterprise strategy.

Yet adoption remains uneven. Many enterprises are still anchored in siloed, function-driven models, limiting their ability to realize GBS’s full promise of agility and growth. This creates the imperative for a new approach .

Next-generation Operating Models

The GBS model is evolving from a collection of centralized functions into an integrated, enterprise-wide operating system. Modern GBS units are increasingly designed around end-to-end process ownership, spanning order-to-cash, source-to-pay, hire-to-retire and beyond.

Pioneering firms such as P&G and Unilever were among the first to adopt GBS at scale, and today most large consumer goods companies have formalized GBS organizations, building on that early foundation.

Several leading global consumer goods companies have already established digitalization centers of excellence within their GBS organizations, using them as platforms to embed AI, analytics and process innovation at scale.

Digital Transformation and Automation at Scale

Digital enablement is at the heart of the GBS evolution. Intelligent GBS leverages a suite of technologies:

AI and Generative AI (Gen AI) to drive no-touch transaction processing and augment human decision-making. Hackett’s 2025 survey reports that 89 percent of enterprises are actively advancing
Gen AI initiatives, up from just 16 percent a year earlier.²

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and process mining to remove manual touchpoints and illuminate process inefficiencies. Gartner notes that process mining adoption is accelerating as enterprises seek full transparency over end-to-end workflows.³

Data fabrics and analytics hubs to enable real-time, cross-functional decision-making.

Cloud migration of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to ensure scalability, resilience and agility.

For manufacturing firms, predictive analytics embedded in GBS can reduce downtime and improve throughput. McKinsey benchmarks illustrate the impact: In manufacturing, predictive analytics and smart factory integration have cut downtime by 30–50 percent and improved throughput by 10–30 percent.⁴ For consumer goods and retail companies, centralizing trade spend analytics or automating Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) fulfillment through GBS not only reduces costs but also accelerates speed-to-market.

GBS in Action: Industry Applications

While the GBS model is consistent across sectors, its applications vary by industry.

• Manufacturing

  GBS plays a critical role in predictive maintenance and quality control by integrating with smart factory systems. It also strengthens supply chain resilience through end-to-end visibility, demand forecasting and supplier collaboration. For instance, a leading mining and manufacturing company partnered with WNS to unify fragmented procure-to-pay operations into a scalable GBS model, harnessing automation and analytics to improve visibility, strengthen supplier collaboration and unlock working capital benefits.

• Retail

  Omni-channel order-to-cash processes are optimized within GBS, while centralized analytics hubs drive dynamic pricing and promotions across markets.

• Consumer Goods

  GBS enables integrated trade promotion management across regions and manages D2C fulfillment and returns, enhancing efficiency and customer experience.

These examples demonstrate that GBS is no longer a back-office construct. In MRCPG, it is an enabler of frontline business outcomes, from revenue uplift to faster product innovation.

Building the GBS Workforce of the Future

As GBS becomes more digital and intelligence-driven, the workforce must evolve alongside it. The shift is underway:

According to Deloitte’s 2024 Human Capital Trends survey, 74 percent of executives say workforce value must be measured beyond traditional productivity,⁵ underscoring the shift from volume to value. The future GBS professional is not a processor, but a strategic collaborator who blends technical fluency with business acumen.

However, skills alone are not enough. Stakeholders now expect GBS to deliver experiences on par with customer-facing functions.

From SLAs to XLAs: Elevating Experience

The success of GBS is no longer measured only by efficiency. Stakeholders increasingly expect GBS to deliver experience parity with customer-facing functions.

Design thinking is being embedded into GBS delivery models, while real-time feedback loops ensure continuous improvement. The result is a function that is not only efficient but also empathetic and experience-led.

Meeting these expectations requires trust, compliance and governance by design.

Embedding Trust in GBS

In MRCPG, regulatory pressures are intensifying, whether in packaging waste, deforestation or Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosures. GBS has become a guardian of compliance, anchoring tax, trade, ESG reporting and cybersecurity.

Crucially, GBS now also governs responsible AI adoption. With regulations such as the EU AI Act and new global AI standards, MRCPG companies are relying on GBS to ensure transparency and compliance while embedding AI ethics into frontline processes like pricing and promotions.

Realizing Value Beyond Cost Savings

In MRCPG, where thin margins are a constant, the value of GBS extends far beyond cost takeout:

Crucially, GBS metrics are being aligned directly to C-suite scorecards, ensuring that performance reflects enterprise outcomes, not just service levels. With this foundation, enterprises are positioned to aim higher, toward an autonomous GBS future.

The Road to Autonomous GBS

The next frontier is the autonomous GBS model, powered by AI and machine learning. In this future state:

A recent report found that more than half of 60+ leading GBS organizations are actively piloting or deploying Gen AI use cases⁶ – clear evidence that GBS is becoming the launchpad for enterprise-scale autonomy. Deloitte’s 2025 GBS survey reinforces this, with over 50 percent of enterprises prioritizing Gen AI, intelligent automation and analytics in their GBS strategies.⁷

For MRCPG, the opportunity is even more compelling. Everest Group’s July 2025 insight, Current State of Gen AI Adoption in the Retail and CPG Sector, highlights how CPG firms are moving beyond experimentation toward embedding Gen AI in core functions, such as revenue growth management, demand forecasting and trade promotion optimization.⁸ In parallel, several global consumer goods leaders are positioning their GBS organizations as digital platforms, building specialized centers of excellence to test and scale AI-enabled use cases across supply chain, marketing and finance.

Similarly, Agentic AI isn’t future speculation; it’s transforming manufacturing operations today. AI agents are autonomously managing tasks like predictive maintenance, re-order of parts and quality control scanning on the shop floor, while digital twins simulate and tune production workflows.

Conclusion

GBS has reached an inflection point. For manufacturing, retail and CPG companies, it is no longer an efficiency lever but a strategic imperative. By embedding digital and governance at scale, orchestrating industry-specific processes such as RGM and embracing Agentic AI, GBS will elevate from a service construct to an orchestrator of enterprise agility, resilience and growth.

The evidence is compelling: GBS-led models consistently deliver lower operating costs, greater production resilience, stronger revenue outcomes from omni-channel strategies and healthier working capital cycles. The challenge for MRCPG leaders is not whether GBS creates value; it is how quickly they can mature the model and scale it across the enterprise.

Is your GBS ready to move from scale to orchestration? Connect with our experts to explore how WNS can help you design a future-ready GBS model that accelerates resilience, innovation and growth.

References

1. 2025 Deloitte’s Global Business Services (GBS) Survey | Deloitte

2. 89% of Executives Fast-Tracking Gen AI to Drive Enterprise Performance | The Hackett Group

3. Innovation Insight: Utilize Process Mining to Support Sustainable Business Operations | Gartner

4. Capturing the Value of Industry 4.0 | McKinsey & Company

5. As Human Performance Takes Center Stage, Are Traditional Productivity Metrics Enough | Deloitte Insights

6. Exploring the Potential of Generative AI in GBS: State of the Market and Path Ahead | Everest Group

7. Deloitte Unveils the ‘2025 Global Business Services Survey’ | PR Newswire

8. Current State of Gen AI Adoption in the Retail and CPG Sector | Everest Group