Technology & Outsourcing 2026

The rate of change in the technology and outsourcing industry continues to increase after a period of relative stability. New and disruptive technologies have come and gone (or gone somewhat dormant) within the past 12 months, while others have demonstrated more staying power. The global outsourcing industry continues to remain strong in light of these new and somewhat disruptive technologies, and outsourcing providers have incorporated many of these technologies into their service offerings. This ability to constantly evolve along with the broader technology market demonstrates the flexibility and resilience of the outsourcing industry as a whole.

New Technologies

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a dominant force in the IT services industry. ChatGPT, GitHub, GPT-4 (Bard) and other generative AI models are end user-friendly and widely available, which has led to greater comfort and adoption of AI technologies in the broader market. Moving from a mere buzzword tossed around by service providers who had not yet integrated the technology into their solutions to a driver of new solutions geared towards increased efficiency, AI in the IT services space is here to stay.

Indeed, many customers are already moving beyond merely generative artificial intelligence and are transitioning to more autonomous agentic AI models. Agentic AI models operate with far more autonomy than purely generative models, which require human input in order to generate a unique output. Agentic AI learns on its own and more closely mimics human decision-making capability. Accordingly, clearly defining the parameters and other limitations of agentic AI and similarly autonomous solutions has become paramount. In addition, adoption of AI procurement governance policies and procedures by purchasers of technology services is a must, as the technology is not going away.

Cryptocurrency

As predicted, the last couple years served as a bit of a filter for cryptocurrency, where only the strongest survived and thrived. Bitcoin and Ethereum continue to lead the way in terms of overall valuation with various altcoins being subject to far greater market volatility. While insiders seem to be optimistic about the cryptocurrency market, those on the outside have adopted somewhat of a “wait and see” mode. Will the potential economic uncertainty caused by the proliferation of AI result in a stronger position for alternative forms of currency or will cryptocurrencies be more at risk by sharing the very ecosystem that AI is likely to thrive in?

Non-fungible tokens

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are essentially digital certificates of asset ownership and are primarily represented by digital images that were bought and sold as if they were more tangible assets. At the height of the NFT craze, a single NFT sold for more than USD20 million at Sotheby’s. In 2026, the NFT market is in an extended recovery phase. Trading activity is on the rise again, but prices remain far below 2021 peaks, with growth driven mainly by gaming, utility NFTs, and real-world asset tokenisation. NFTs are now more prevalent in the form of event tickets, loyalty credentials, identity confirmation, gaming currency and supply chain tokens. The total market is expected to grow by 30% over the next ten years, but that seems incredibly speculative given the rate of change in the IT space at the moment.

Metaverse

The metaverse promised to become a new digital world hosted somewhere in the ether, which analysts predicted would ultimately comprise a market worth several billions of dollars. Service providers immediately formed metaverse working groups and marketed managed services for customers’ needs in the metaverse. Meanwhile, metaverse consulting groups began advertising their services and social media management services evolved to encompass management of one’s social media presence in the metaverse. Aside from a handful of applications, the metaverse, as a digital version of the current world, simply never took off and very few customers engaged service providers for these purposes. However, similar to NFTs, the metaverse repurposed itself in a manner that appears to be geared more towards utility than simply providing a duplicate digital world. For example, teachers may train for active shooters or similar threats in the metaverse, and police may train for interactions involving those with mental health issues or with fentanyl users requiring immediate emergency care.

Implementation and adoption of these new technologies require practitioners to remain current on familiar concepts of the law (eg, IP, data protection and privacy, and employment law) yet also be prepared to apply these concepts in a very new way. Unfortunately, some level of patience is also required by practitioners, given that many of these issues are currently subject to litigation, including litigation that could prohibit (or materially limit) the use of these technologies as currently contemplated.

Stability of Cloud and -as-a-Service Solutions

Unlike many of these more disruptive technologies, cloud and as-a-service solutions have been widely adopted. Customers across the globe have purchased some mix of these solutions with varying levels of complexity and, for the most part, have managed to appropriately navigate the data privacy, cybersecurity, export and tax issues initially presented by these technologies without borders.

Agreements governing these products have also seemingly stabilised. The largest providers (ie, the original providers of the actual cloud infrastructure behind most cloud and -as-a-service offerings) continue to command the most deference to their terms and conditions, while mid-to-small providers often view their agreements as far more negotiable. Key sticking points have not changed throughout the years, as companies and providers alike continue to focus on limits of liability, indemnification, termination, compliance audits, data security and privacy, and permitted uses.

Outsourcing and New Technologies

While service providers continue to offer all of the more traditional outsourcing services (eg, data centre, application development and maintenance, call centres, finance, HR, and support desk), these offerings are increasingly becoming more solution- or platform-focused, with service provider personnel serving in more of a management or support role. Service provider solutions in the outsourcing space, in particular, more often include some form of automation and a suite of AI solutions geared toward increasing operational efficiency. Over the last 12 months, providers have generally moved AI out from their back-office and placed it squarely in front of customers as a core component of the services.

As a result, many outsourcing providers who were traditionally more focused on towers or full-time equivalents are now on the frontline introducing their customers to newer technologies. This shift is also evident in the introduction by providers of “bundled offerings”. Bundled offerings are generally comprised of products or services offered by independent third-party providers through a customer’s outsourcing provider. These are not traditional subcontractor arrangements. Rather, the bundled offering includes two providers who ‒ in theory ‒ remain independent of one another, with the customer’s outsourcing provider serving more in the role of a managed services provider. Practitioners need to be wary of these models, as any number of providers have not resolved certain privity of contract and liability issues associated with this approach.

The above-mentioned approaches may represent an attempt by outsourcing providers to claw back against a very clear trend in the industry during the last several years, which is the breaking up of “mega” outsourcing contracts into several one-off agreements for individual services and products. Alternatively, outsourcing providers may be co-mingling managed services and outsourced services to a greater extent and simply hoping to become a one-stop-shop for their customers.

Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT)/Global Capability Centre (GCC) models are also on the rise. BOT/GCC models are not new and became relatively disfavoured over the last two decades. However, because these models enable customers to maintain more control over the servicing staff, customers are also in a better position to guide the technologies used and adopted by the servicing staff (as opposed to being beholden to the sometimes less nimble tools used by outsourcing providers).

Regardless of the reason, the introduction of new products, new services and new/revisited models demands that practitioners pay closer attention to the governing agreements. While many of the legal topics have not changed throughout the years, the approach to these topics certainly has and often calls for multiple approaches to address the same topic ‒ each dependent upon the technology provided.