Philippe Gabulon, CEO Societe Generale Global Solution Centre: AI is a major shift and people in companies need to reskill and upskill for make the best use of the new emerging technologies

Recently, the leaders in business services industry gathered for sharing their latest insights on the evolution and shifts in their work and companies at the 11th Edition of THE ROMANIAN BUSINESS SERVICES FORUM & AWARDS.

In the discussion of the CEO Forum panel, Philippe Gabulon, the CEO of Societe Generale Global Solution Centre depicted the effects and processes following the AI and new technologies emerging in the work processes, costs, the transformation of work roles and investments.  

There is a shift in what is happening in these services centers mostly due to automation. There is an evolution in the tasks that people do in terms of complexity. To be successful in this shifting landscape, people need to be prepared to head in this direction. The education system is very important. Within companies, we need to see how we reskill and upskill our employees and train those people for new technologies. AI is a major shift, and we need to prepare our people for this.

The time of just executing something is gone. Nobody wants to have a center where people are doing just what they are asked to do. They are willing to see people who can accompany them in their transformation. That’s how we position ourselves to achieve this, to have this impact. It’s kind of a new job for some people. We need to see how we diversify in consultancy, for example, AI, new technologies to be able to deliver. In terms of costs, newest conclusion is that they are not anymore differentiating for high-end roles such as, for example, data scientists in our group, whether they are from India or Romania.

We have been embracing AI technologies for years and we have prepared for this shift through systematic learning such as building awareness and basic knowledge conveyed to all employees and even created an AI company within our group with offices in India and France. Also, we massively invest in some very specific projects in terms of AI learning. In terms of scaling the costs, we learned from experience and the measure of investments is customized according to the complexity of a project. Hence, the level of learning is in line with the level of depth to achieve efficiency. 

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Event resources:

The CEO Forum and Awards Gala ceremomy recording can be found here: ROMANIAN BUSINESS SERVICESFORUM & AWARDS 2025 – powered by The Diplomat Bucharest

The winners of ROMANIAN BUSINESS SERVICES AWARDS can be found here: The business services industry in Romania celebrated its performers at Romanian Business Services Forum & Awards, 2025 Edition! – Outsourcing-Today.ro