HFS Research Webinar: Buying Services-as-Software™: How to make AI deals that deliver

Описание: AI is forcing a reset in how enterprises buy and govern services. As automation and GenAI move delivery from people to platforms, many deals are collapsing under outdated assumptions about cost, control, and value.

This webinar gives sourcing, procurement, and operations leaders a pragmatic path to Services-as-Software™ agreements that scale with AI, not headcount.

What you’ll learn
Join us for a discussion that cuts through the AI deal hype and shows what it actually takes to buy Services-as-Software agreements that deliver.

AI-first sourcing isn’t a tweak to traditional outsourcing, it’s a redesign. In this webinar, we will show you how to build Services-as-Software deals that move beyond labor economics and make AI produce measurable business value. You’ll learn how to replace RFP theater and FTE-based constructs with outcome-led, consumption-ready deal models built for automation, autonomy, and continuous model evolution.

You’ll gain insights on:
• Why AI breaks traditional deal logic. Understand how autonomous workflows, platform delivery, and model drift make time-and-materials and headcount pricing structurally unfit for the AI era.
• How Services-as-Software changes the sourcing lifecycle. Learn what must shift across strategy, evaluation, contracting, onboarding, performance, governance, financial management, and renewal to support AI-enabled delivery.
• Designing outcomes providers must prove, not pitch. See how to move from slideware selection to real performance proof using case-study–driven challenges and live co-design.
• Building AI-ready commercial structures. Explore consumption-based pricing, tiered flat fees for platform services, and performance-linked outcomes that reward intelligence and automation at scale.
• Creating adaptive SLAs for AI performance. Replace static SLA policing with continuous assurance for accuracy, drift, bias, hallucinations, and retraining requirements.
• Governing for algorithmic accountability. Learn how to embed responsible AI controls—bias audits, explainability, model cards, and compliance guardrails—directly into the deal.
• Escaping the “FTE trap.” Get practical guidance to reframe value, risk, and governance around AI-enabled productivity and platform-led delivery.

Chapters
0:00 – Welcome + session focus (making AI work in deals)
0:58 – Speaker introductions (Nigel, Joe, Ian)
2:45 – How to engage + Q&A + recording note
3:34 – HFS context + “services as software”
5:26 – 2026 theme: “How to AI”
6:32 – Market frustration with services + software
9:01 – Services spectrum: staff aug → services as software
12:26 – Demand shift: agentic + services as software
13:20 – Why/What/How of AI (and where it breaks)
15:42 – AI readiness: data, process debt, people change
16:47 – Why the sourcing playbook needs a reset
20:34 – Pricing shift: subscription + outcome kickers
21:52 – HFS AI playbook: self-fund + outcomes + adaptive contracts
23:43 – Nigel: what enterprises are asking for now
26:01 – Ian: how AI Deal Labs differ from RFPs
30:11 – Joe: what “good” looks like (governance over contracts)
32:21 – Cost predictability in AI-first deals
34:51 – Provider margin vs rising AI/compute costs
39:07 – Enterprise adoption: culture + operating model change
41:27 – Who leads agentic AI: in-house vs providers vs hyperscalers
45:49 – Measuring outcomes across multiple providers
48:19 – Geopolitics + sovereignty implications
53:00 – Moving beyond RFI/RFP: how to shift the model
59:00 – AI Deal Labs approach (North Star → 100-day plan)
1:02:08 – One start/stop advice for buyers + sellers
1:04:17 – Closing + next steps