From process debt to AI divide: Phil Fersht in conversation with Tiger Tyagarajan

There will be AI winners and AI losers. There will be no middle ground.

In this candid and wide-ranging episode of From the Horse’s Mouth, Phil Fersht is joined by Tiger Tyagarajan to unpack why 2025 was the beginning of the services industry finally moving beyond AI talk to AI action.

If you’re an AI ‘fast follower’, this is one you don’t want to miss.

What you’ll hear in 30 minutes:

• Why 2025 was the beginning of a great separation between AI winners and losers
• Why process debt is one of the top blockers to enterprise success
• Why the fast-follower approach doesn’t work in the AI world
• The end of “mess for less” and what replaces it
• Why culture is the competitive advantage today
• What leadership looks like once AI slices through layers of management
• How AI is enabling smaller, faster, founder-led enterprises

Guest Snapshots

Tiger Tyagarajan is a global business leader, best known for his 13-year stint as the CEO of Genpact, where he helped the company evolve from its 2005 GE spinout into one of the top IT and Business services players today. Since stepping down as CEO, Tiger keeps himself busy advising global enterprises, private equity firms, and venture investors on all things AI adoption and transformation. He does this through advisory roles at BCG, Bain Capital, Brighton Park Capital, and many others.

Timestamps

0:00 – Welcome and intro to Tiger Tyagarajan
0:26 – Tiger’s career journey and advisory roles
2:26 – Genpact’s evolution and the problem of process debt
3:31 – 2025 outlook: AI winners vs. losers  
5:39 – Why there’s no “fast follower” strategy in AI
6:44 – What Tiger sees at BCG and global markets
7:08 – Middle East leapfrogging with AI investment  
9:01 – Competing as a smaller, nimbler firm
10:08 – Headcount reduction and the next service disruption
11:21 – Culture as the #1 differentiator in AI
12:14 – Faster, iterative transformation cycles
13:08 – The new operating model: people, agents, and AI budgets    
14:30 – Emerging challengers vs. Wall Street incumbents
15:03 – Why services are becoming a dirty word    
16:07 – Cannibalizing revenue to scale IP and margins    
17:35 – New job roles and changing talent models    
18:32 – The future of work: AI + human skills    
21:01 – How GenAI reshapes management work    
22:28 – Leadership in the AI era: trust and adoption    
24:09 – AI exploits, humans explore    
25:21 – McKinsey layoffs: reality vs. messaging    
28:18 – Big firms shrink, SMBs grow    
28:59 – Capital-light business models at a global scale    
31:45 – 2026 as the “year of how.”    
32:13 – Winning in the last mile    
33:22 – Final thoughts and wrap-up

Explore More

• Phil Fersht on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipfersht
• HFS Research Website: https://www.hfsresearch.com/
• Tiger Tyagarajan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tigertyagarajan/?originalSubdomain=pt