In this exclusive interview Thomas Mackenbrock (main photo), a dynamic leader and visionary strategist currently positioned as the aspiring CEO of Teleperformance shares with European Business Magazine how the BPO giant will tackle the challenges ahead. With a deep background in digital transformation, customer experience innovation, and operational excellence, Thomas has been instrumental in steering global organizations toward sustainable growth. Formerly CEO of Majorel and a seasoned executive in the BPO and tech-enabled services sector, he brings a forward-thinking perspective on the evolving landscape of customer engagement, AI integration, and responsible leadership.
Thomas Mackenbrock, Aspiring CEO of TP : “At TP, our vision is not a choice between humans and machines, but enhancing human performance through AI”.
Teleperformance has long been known for placing human empathy at the heart of its services. In an era of rapid automation, how do you strike the right balance between AI innovation and human touch across global operations?
At TP, the future of customer experience is defined by the seamless integration of advanced AI and genuine human empathy. While technology evolves rapidly, human decisions remain influenced by emotion – making the human touch essential.
Our focus is to enhance the capabilities of our TP experts with AI that improves speed, accuracy, and insight – while preserving the empathy that drives meaningful connections.
Our approach is built on intelligent orchestration: knowing when and how to apply AI, and when to engage human expertise for complex, emotionally nuanced interactions. This task is managed dynamically to ensure valuable outcomes for our clients.
Your Foundational AI Backbone (FAB) strategy was a highlight at Capital Markets Day. How does FAB differentiate TP from other players in the BPO and customer experience sector—and how scalable is this model across verticals?
TP.ai FAB is the platform enabling TP to deliver the speed of AI with the empathy of human expertise.Unlike AI as a standalone feature, TP.ai FAB is a modular orchestration platform designed to seamlessly integrate AI agents, TP experts, and partner technologies into an intelligent ecosystem. It is designed with three layers:
A Blueprint Layer with vertical-specific, outcome-driven use cases.
an AI Orchestration Layer, and a Foundation Layer that ensures security, scalability, and model-agnostic flexibility.
This modular architecture allows to operationalize AI at enterprise scale – intelligently, efficiently, and with measurable business impact across sectors and geographies.
With a €100 million investment earmarked for AI in 2025, what are your strategic priorities in terms of AI development—speed, personalization, cost-efficiency, or something else entirely?
Our investments in AI and transformation for 2025 are focused on: Speed and scalability. We aim to deploy AI solutions rapidly across clients without reinventing the wheel every time. That’s why our modular approach is so important.
Vertical specificity. We’re building AI blueprints tailored to specific industries. We want to expand verticalized solutions by building industry-specific end-to-end AI-enabled offerings.
Data services and human-in-the-loop. AI needs high-quality data to function. We’re investing in end-to-end data services and maintaining human oversight for trust, bias mitigation, and compliance. We will also accelerate growth in services along the AI value chain with a focus on digital technology services.
Our goal is not just efficiency, it’s to create real business outcomes for clients while staying compliant and secure.Europe is increasingly assertive in regulating AI with frameworks like the EU AI Act. How is TP positioning itself to meet regulatory demands while continuing to innovate at pace?
Regulation plays a critical role – particularly in Europe, where standards around data privacy, security, and AI governance are among the most advanced globally. Regulation is also not necessarily a constraint, but part of the foundation for building trust.
From day one, we embed compliance into the design of our platforms and processes. Our deep expertise allows us to navigate complex areas such as data protection, ethical AI, and bias mitigation with confidence and agility.
Looking ahead, we believe the companies that successfully drive innovation with strong regulatory alignment will create competitive advantages. TP is well positioned to do exactly that – at scale and across geographies.
As a company that thrives on agility and execution, what structural or cultural shifts have you made internally to ensure that AI adoption is not just top-down but embedded at every operational layer?
Embedding AI at TP is not simply about adopting new tools, it represents a fundamental cultural transformation. We are intentional about building AI fluency across all levels of the organization, starting with structured training for our supervisors and frontline leaders to ensure that knowledge and capability scale from the ground up.
To accelerate this shift, we’ve established dedicated leadership, most notably with our Chief AI Officer, Anish Mukker, who is driving AI integration across business units and geographies.
Our strategy is rooted in combining deep domain expertise with AI in a way that’s practical, scalable, and trusted by our teams. This isn’t about top-down deployment, it’s about reimagining how every layer of TP operates, collaborates, and creates value in the AI era.
TP serves clients across 170 countries. How do you ensure AI solutions are both globally consistent and locally relevant, particularly in industries where trust, privacy, and compliance are non-negotiable?
That’s a critical question, and one we address by design. Our AI solutions are designed to be globally scalable, yet locally adaptable. The modular architecture of TP.ai FAB allows us to reuse core components while tailoring solutions to local languages, regulations, and cultural nuances. For example, in Content Moderation or Trust & Safety, the context varies dramatically between countries. We combine local talent with global technology to ensure compliance, relevance, and cultural sensitivity. Trust, privacy, and compliance are non-negotiable for us, especially because we handle sensitive data for industries like banking, healthcare, and government services.
Looking beyond 2025, what’s your vision for the future of work at Teleperformance? Do you foresee AI fundamentally reshaping workforce dynamics—or do you believe the human element will always be at the core of your service model?
The future of TP is already being shaped by the transformative power of AI. It allows us to operate at greater speed, scale, and precision, enabling our teams to manage growing complexity and deliver faster, smarter solutions. AI is not just enhancing productivity; it’s reshaping how we work, how we serve, and how we create value.
At the same time, the human element remains fundamental. Empathy, judgment, and emotional intelligence are irreplaceable, especially in high-stakes, nuanced situations. That’s where our people create lasting impact.
Our vision is not a choice between humans and machines, but a commitment to equipping our people with the right tools to elevate their performance and decision-making. By combing cutting-edge technology with deep human insight, we’re not only transforming our own operations, we’re delivering greater agility, resilience, and measurable outcomes for our clients across industries.
