Alexandru Stoenescu, Vice President, Europe Operations, Country Lead: Romania & Bulgaria, Genpact: We have a strong ambition to be an AI-first company not just in solutions or delivery models for our customers but also through our own internal processes

Outsourcing Today, the business services industry’s community networking and news integrated platform, resumes the series of interviews dedicated to evolution, expectations and opportunities in business services and related industries.

We invite business leaders, managers of strategic departments of companies, key voices in their field to share with us their insights depicting the new beginning of this year in business, how it looks, how it is anticipated, what adjustments are included in 2025’s agenda and the perspective of growth.

Find the full series of interviews here

We spoke recently with Alexandru Stoenescu, Vice President, Europe Operations, Country Lead: Romania & Bulgaria, Genpact about the business evolution, trends and expectations of growth.

Find below the insights:

Strategic Vision and Market Trends
Over the last couple of years, we have witnessed the increased embedment of AI across all industries, especially in business services. The use of large language models and generative AI, in particular, is transforming how we operate. Beyond this, the rise of Agentic AI and the continued emphasis on data further amplifies AI’s potential, likely driving a fundamental industry transformation. In 2025, many companies will start moving from Proof of Concept to industrialized, large-scale solutions, including platforms operating across ERPs, driving value across multiple segments in parallel.

It is also the year when many companies that have been laggards in effectively using new business services platforms will have the opportunity to leapfrog and catch up on value delivery.

This industry sector has been steadily growing in our country, making Romania one of Europe’s most sought-after places for this type of work
The potential to grow is still there, even with the increasing number of new players on the market. We also have to be conscious of the fact that technology is rapidly replacing some of the inherent attributes of the ways of working this industry has been built on in this part of the world. For example, over the past decade, many companies have hired talent based on language proficiency and trained skills to leverage the wide range of foreign languages spoken here. That is changing very fast – we expect to see technology play a much more significant role in delivering business services for European markets.

We also expect technology to become a more prevalent way of delivering the service through AI and Gen AI. The significant change that businesses have to go through is skilling and reskilling. Let’s not forget that AI is only as good as the data it sits on and the operators using it. So skilling, reskilling, and shaping the workforce to be at the forefront of these technological advances will probably be the biggest competitive advantage.

Staying ahead

Over the last five years, we have repeatedly heard that the most sought-after attributes are resilience and tolerance for ambiguity, which has continued since COVID-19 times. Today’s reality is that it is not an attribute but more of a table-stakes minimum for a leadership team.

The emergent ones in 2025 for this industry sector in Romania are:

Advocacy for change – as the wave of AI becomes real and our operating models will change, it is important that we shape the journey rather than follow it, bring people with us and drive it with your teams.

Keep humans “in the loop” – ensure your teams and yourselves are skilled and reskilled to be at the center of the technology deployments and effectively use them.

An insatiable hunger for innovation at speed – foster a culture of experimentation, look for value rather than efficiencies, be prepared to try, fail fast, and try again.

Evolution and innovation

Genpact is in its 20th year of existence and has started its next phase of evolution as a company with a strong ambition to be an AI-first company not just in solutions or delivery models for our customers but also through our own internal processes. We are working on deploying various cutting-edge solutions to our clients, ranging from how to effectively harness the power of Data through our Gigafactory, deployment of our new Agentic AI solutions, and further increasing our 150+ GenAI models across all business processes. We are also undergoing a significant internal transformation, leveraging AI for our internal processes, such as our AI Culture Assistant – Amber, or our unified AI helpdesk tool – Scout. We continue to focus on skilling our employees through Genome, our state-of-the-art learning platform supported by an AI learning ground made available to all our employees where they can experiment with the various applicability of Data and AI in business processes and develop solutions or refine existing ones. We are not just seeing innovation as critical at this point in time, but we are driving AI innovation at speed based on human expertise.

Genpact is also introducing its own Agentic Solutions, accelerating its move to Service-as-Agentic-Solutions. The first Agentic Solution to launch in a series is “Genpact AP Capture” from Genpact’s Accounts Payable (AP) suite, which is designed to modernize Accounts Payable. With pressure placed on today’s CFOs to evolve the way their teams work, Genpact AP Capture leverages data and insights to enable faster invoice extraction with higher precision to deliver superior value. Genpact’s launch of Agentic Solutions follows the introduction of Genpact AI Gigafactory, an AI accelerator that enables clients to develop, deploy, and scale AI.

A meaningful year

Genpact is celebrating 20 years in Romania and continues to regard Romania as its epicenter for delivery in EMEA, as we now have more than 5000+ colleagues across our centers in this country. In 2025, we will continue to grow our presence with a significant focus on Iași and its surrounding areas, where we have doubled our employees in the past six months. Similarly, we will be looking to capitalize on our AI Innovation Center in Bucharest as we focus on delivering cutting-edge technology solutions to our customers to enable significant value for them and our business. 2025 is hugely exciting, and I would like to thank all Genpacters and our clients for our past and future journey.

On a personal note, my wish for 2025 is that we, as a society, will find calmness and balance after what has been a reasonably agitated period over the last six months and that we prove to ourselves – first and foremost – our commitment to the values that have helped this country ascend. We have a tremendous opportunity to show unity and togetherness, and I greatly look forward to it!