{"id":15174,"date":"2026-03-06T09:21:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T09:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/?p=15174"},"modified":"2026-04-09T09:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:27:12","slug":"ligia-ardelean-country-manager-atos-romania-ai-amplifies-expertise-but-only-if-people-know-how-to-work-with-it-effectively-and-critically","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/?p=15174","title":{"rendered":"🎙️Ligia Ardelean, Country Manager Atos Romania: AI amplifies expertise. But only if people know how to work with it effectively and critically"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Outsourcing Today, the business services industry\u2019s integrated networking and news platform, continues its interview series with leaders shaping the future of business services and related sectors. We explore key perspectives on the year ahead, strategic priorities, and growth opportunities.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read below the key standpoints and perspectives of <\/strong>Ligia Ardelean, Country Manager Atos Rom\u00e2nia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Power statement of 2026: Intelligence Amplifies People.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is the AI-based technologies changing your company\u2019s competitive edge in 2026?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI is fundamentally reshaping how we deliver managed services. We are moving from reactive, ticket-based support to predictive, AI-augmented operations where issues are identified and resolved before they impact the business. Across our Technology Center, AI is embedded into our service delivery lifecycle \u2014 from intelligent automation in infrastructure monitoring to AI-assisted application management and modernization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What gives us a competitive edge is the combination of deep domain expertise with AI-powered tooling. Our teams are developing the judgment to know when AI accelerates outcomes and when human expertise must lead. In 2026, our focus is on making every service delivery team an AI-augmented team; while maintaining the quality, compliance, and security standards our clients expect in highly regulated environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Group level, Atos has been recognized as a Leader in AI-Driven Application Managed Services by ISG<\/a>, which reflects our commitment to embedding responsible AI into everything we do \u2014 as a core delivery capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the biggest misconception business leaders still have about AI?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my view, the biggest misconception is treating AI as a product you buy and deploy, rather than a capability you build across your organization. Many leaders still approach AI as a technology procurement decision: select a tool, implement it, and assume transformation will inevitably follow. But the challenge is actually organizational: equipping people with the skills, governance frameworks, and operating models that allow AI to deliver sustained value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The companies getting the most from AI in 2026 are those that invested in building AI fluency across their workforce: in management, operations, and client-facing roles, as much as in technical teams. AI amplifies expertise. But only if people know how to work with it<\/strong> effectively and critically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaders also increasingly understand that AI delivers results proportional to the quality of what it works with: data, processes, and governance structures. The gap I still see is between knowing this and actually prioritizing the unglamorous groundwork before launching AI initiatives. The organizations pulling ahead in 2026 are the ones that closed that gap early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which business decisions in your company are AI-led?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We differentiate between AI-informed and AI-led decisions, and we are deliberate about where each applies. In service operations, AI increasingly leads in decisions where speed and pattern recognition do matter: detecting anomalies, optimizing resource allocation, and accelerating routine workflows. These are high-volume, high-frequency decisions where consistency and reaction time outweigh the need for contextual judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For strategic decisions: client engagement models, talent development, service design – AI informs. We use analytics and AI-generated insights as inputs, but the final call rests with experienced professionals who understand context, relationships, and nuance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This balance is intentional. Our clients trust us with critical systems, and that trust requires clear accountability at every decision point – something that is difficult to delegate to an algorithm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How has AI changed what customers expect from your products or services?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer expectations have shifted fundamentally over the past two to three years. Reliable infrastructure management and fast incident response used to define a strong service partnership, but these are no longer differentiators; they are just the baseline.  Today, clients expect their service provider to anticipate problems, surface insights, and continuously improve their environment \u2014 and they expect these capabilities as standard, built into how we operate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The expectation has also shifted toward outcomes rather than activities. Clients are less interested in how many tickets we close and more interested in how many incidents we prevent. AI enables this shift because it allows us to move from measuring effort to measuring impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another significant change is the expectation around the speed of adaptation. Clients see how quickly AI tools evolve, and they expect their service partners to evolve at the same pace. This means our ability to continuously upskill our teams and integrate new AI capabilities into live service environments has become a competitive differentiator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you stay differentiated in your market, what tools and competitive advantages do you leverage in 2026?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our differentiation comes from three things that are hard to replicate: deep technical expertise in regulated, complex environments, a workforce that combines domain knowledge with growing AI fluency, and our position within the Atos Group ecosystem, which gives us access to platforms like Polaris AI, sovereign cloud architectures, and end-to-end cybersecurity capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2026, our competitive advantage comes down to people who know how to apply AI tools in context (AI tooling itself is increasingly commoditized), understanding which AI approach works for a specific client environment, navigating compliance requirements, and delivering measurable outcomes. We invest heavily in continuous learning and AI certification across our teams, because we believe the real edge lies in human-AI collaboration, not in technology alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romania\u2019s position as a leading European technology hub also works in our favor. We combine Western European quality standards with the agility and technical depth that the Romanian IT ecosystem is known for.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you balance rapid innovation with responsible and ethical AI use?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responsibility is embedded in how we approach AI adoption. We operate within clear governance frameworks aligned with EU regulatory requirements, with transparency about what it does and where its limitations are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speed matters, but so does judgment. We encourage our teams to be ambitious in applying AI while maintaining the critical thinking to question and verify its outputs. AI tools are increasingly confident. Our people need to match that confidence with the ability to override when something doesn’t add up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, responsible AI adoption is what sustains client trust. And in managed services, trust is the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What technology trend beyond AI should businesses be paying attention to now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two trends stand out. The first is cybersecurity resilience. As AI capabilities grow, so do the sophistication and scale of cyber threats. Organizations need to think about security as a continuous investment that evolves with the technology landscape, not a one-time implementation. Preparing for the next generation of threats should be on every leadership agenda now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second is digital sustainability. The environmental footprint of IT operations, including AI workloads, is becoming a board-level concern. Clients increasingly expect their technology partners to help them optimize performance while reducing energy consumption. Atos has been recognized as a Leader in Digital Sustainability IT Solutions by ISG<\/a>, which reflects where the market is heading. In 2026, sustainable IT is moving from aspiration to operational accountability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Outsourcing Today, the business services industry\u2019s integrated networking and news platform, continues its interview series with leaders shaping the future of business services and related sectors. We explore key perspectives on the year ahead, strategic priorities, and growth opportunities. Read […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,18,871,3,8,5,17,317],"tags":[715],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15174"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15174"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15429,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15174\/revisions\/15429"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outsourcing-today.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}