In 2025, most enterprise technology leaders find themselves managing the past, not building the future. Despite years of digital ambition and billions spent on modernization, technical debt has become the single biggest barrier to innovation, agility, and growth. HFS Research estimates the Global 2000 are carrying $1.5–2 trillion in accumulated tech debt. This is not just a technical issue—it’s a structural liability that slows innovation, drains budgets, and locks organizations into operating models that can’t keep pace with today’s markets.
For decades, the IT services industry has responded with labor-based models—outsourcing, staff augmentation, and piecemeal automation. But these approaches have too often become part of the problem, incentivizing the maintenance of complexity rather than its elimination. The result? Stagnation, with armies of offshore workers keeping legacy systems on life support while innovation is throttled at the core.
A new era is dawning. According to recent HFS/Publicis Sapient research, 80% of enterprise leaders believe AI will finally move the modernization needle. Four in five want to pivot away from labor-first service models, and more than 60% are open to switching providers who can help them move faster. The message is clear: incremental change is not enough. Enterprises are ready for a full-on escape from legacy constraints.
AI—especially agentic AI—offers a real escape route. Unlike traditional automation, agentic AI can read and rewrite legacy code, automate integration and testing, and compress years of technical debt remediation into weeks. With large context windows and the ability to reason across structured and unstructured data, AI changes not just how fast we move, but what’s possible. But to realize this potential, AI must be treated not as another tool, but as the foundation of a new operating model.
The traditional services model is broken. Too many providers still optimize for effort over outcomes, measuring success in hours billed rather than complexity removed. Enterprises are demanding more:
Emerging in response is the Services-as-Software paradigm—a shift from labor arbitrage to technology arbitrage. In this model, services are delivered primarily through advanced software platforms and AI agents, minimizing human intervention and maximizing efficiency, scalability, and consistency. This is not about replacing people with bots, but about fundamentally rewiring how modernization gets done.
Three in four enterprise leaders now expect a pivot from staff augmentation to Services-as-Software. The writing is on the wall: productized capabilities, not people; platforms, not presentations.
At Publicis Sapient, we’ve taken a fundamentally different approach. Our Sapient Slingshot model, built on Bodhi—our enterprise-scale agentic AI platform—enables cognitive, context-aware, and scalable transformation. Slingshot brings together:
This isn’t just about accelerating delivery—it’s about connecting business goals to technical execution, end to end. Our multidisciplinary SPEED teams (Strategy, Product, Experience, Engineering, Data & AI) ensure that modernization is not a siloed IT initiative, but a business transformation.
Based on our research and client experience, here’s a practical blueprint for CIOs and business leaders ready to move from incremental change to bold, AI-native operating models:
As services become software, the commercial model must evolve. Our research shows:
Transparency, stability, and alignment to business outcomes are now non-negotiable. Procurement leaders want analytics to prove value, not just invoices. The FTE rate card is on its last legs.
Despite strong momentum toward AI-led, software-defined services, IT and business leaders are often misaligned. IT sees AI as an evolution of infrastructure and cost optimization; business sees it as a lever for growth and innovation. Success requires:
AI transformation isn’t an IT initiative—it’s a business operating model shift. It can’t succeed unless both sides have a firm hand on the jackhammer.
Imagine an enterprise where core platforms evolve continuously, AI reads and replaces brittle workflows, and teams orchestrate outcomes with intelligent agents. Compliance is embedded, governance is coded, and decisions are faster and more contextual than any human could manage alone. Vendors deliver products, not promises. You pay for value, not volume. This is not a patched-up legacy stack, but a platform for continuous reinvention.
Tech debt is no longer just a technical issue—it’s a business risk and a competitive liability. AI is the jackhammer. The five moves above are how to use it. Waiting is surrender. Rewire how you build, partner, govern, and deliver—without delay.
At Publicis Sapient, we’re ready to help you break free. The question is: are you bold enough to rebuild?
About Publicis Sapient
Publicis Sapient is a digital business transformation company. We partner with global organizations to help them create and sustain competitive advantage in a world that is increasingly digital. Our expert SPEED capabilities—Strategy, Product, Experience, Engineering, and Data & AI—combined with a culture of curiosity and deep industry knowledge, enable us to deliver meaningful impact through reimagining the products and experiences customers truly value. For more information, visit publicissapient.com.