A recap from the CX on the Rocks Collective Solutions Series with Kate Brouse and Andrew Griffiths of Outsource Consultants.
In our latest CX on the Rocks Solutions Series session, Outsource Consultants’ Kate Brouse and Andrew Griffiths tackled one of the most persistent myths in CX right now: that transforming customer experience, especially through AI, requires new budget, new approvals, and a clean runway.
It doesn’t.
What it requires is a smarter approach to the money you’re already spending. And that’s exactly what this session was built to deliver.
→ Ready to find out how much budget you could free up? Book a CX Strategy Call with Outsource Consultants.
The Real Risk Isn’t AI. It’s the Timeline You Promised.
Andrew opened the session by pushing back on one of the most common questions he hears at conferences: Isn’t AI still too risky? Shouldn’t we wait?
His answer was clear: the technology isn’t the risk. The risk is what we layer on top of it.
When CX leaders go to leadership with an AI investment pitch, they walk away with a budget and a deadline. That deadline creates pressure. Pressure creates shortcuts. Shortcuts create the exact failures that end up in clickbait headlines about AI projects missing their ROI targets.
“Getting from ‘I signed my contract with a provider’ to ‘it’s operational in the way that it should be in my business’ is not a single-step process.”
– Andrew Griffiths
The solution isn’t to slow down. Not starting is, in Andrew’s words, probably the biggest risk of all. The question is how to move forward without creating the conditions that make failure likely.
The Budget Is Already There. You Just Have to Find It.
The most practical insight of the session was also the most counterintuitive: the best way to avoid a painful ROI conversation with your CFO is to never have it in the first place.
Andrew’s framework is simple. Rather than asking for additional budget to fund an AI initiative, ask instead: what if I could reduce current spend and reinvest the difference? No new ask. No return-by-a-date requirement. No executive scrutiny over a speculative ROI.
Kate added that this mindset also removes the pressure that makes teams rush AI deployments before they’re ready, which is the very pressure that causes so many implementations to stumble.
Running Two Horses at Once: The Risk Mitigation Play
Once you understand how to create the budget, the second piece of the framework is about how to deploy it without taking on unnecessary risk.
The Outsource Consultants approach runs two parallel tracks simultaneously:
Track 1: Labor Optimization. Engage a BPO partner who can deliver equal or better service at a lower cost. This generates immediate, measurable savings, real dollars rather than projected returns, and solves long-standing issues like attrition, inconsistent outcomes, and misaligned vendor relationships.
Track 2: AI Deployment. Use the savings from Track 1 to fund the AI implementation, running it concurrently rather than waiting for labor optimization to complete first.
Kate captured the logic with a racing analogy: this isn’t a relay race where one runner has to finish before the next one starts. It’s two runners leaving the gate at the same time.
“You’re running two courses, two people, two departments within your CX ecosystem at the same time to get that better result.”
– Kate Brouse
The result is a structure where neither initiative is fully dependent on the other. The business keeps moving forward, and the AI project has breathing room to be done right.
Real-World Results: $1.6M Freed, Net New Tech Budget of Zero
The session included a real client case study, a private equity-backed company that wanted to invest in a new contact center platform but had no budget to do so.
The outcome:
- Labor optimization delivered $1.6 million in year-one savings
- That savings fully funded a new CCaaS deployment, with additional capabilities included
- Net new technology budget: $0
As Andrew noted, the most powerful number on the slide was the smallest one. Not the savings figure or the platform cost, but the zero. The client didn’t spend a dime more than before and walked away with better outcomes and new technology.
Kate pointed out that this model isn’t limited to AI or even to CX technology. The freed-up budget can go anywhere the business needs it most.
For private equity-backed organizations, where timelines are compressed and expectations intense, this approach is particularly well-suited. As Andrew put it: if it works under PE pressure, it works in any financial structure.
Read the full case study to see how this PE-backed company funded a complete CCaaS overhaul without spending a dollar more.
Healthcare Case Study: $2M in New Revenue from CX Improvements
The second case study came from healthcare, an industry Andrew described as seeing real opportunity precisely because of its slower adoption curve.
A clinic group was experiencing CX gaps that were directly affecting physician appointment occupancy. By running the parallel labor and technology strategy, the organization didn’t just cut costs. It generated over $2 million in new revenue in the first year through improved patient scheduling and experience.
This is the shift Andrew and Kate are watching accelerate into 2026: CX moving from a cost-reduction conversation to a revenue growth conversation. The patients had a better experience, the physicians had fuller schedules, and the business had meaningful new revenue without a net-new budget ask.
Speaking the Language That Gets CX Funded
One of the more candid moments in the session came when Andrew and Kate discussed why so many CX initiatives stall before they start: translation failure.
CX professionals care deeply about handle times, CSAT scores, and retention. Finance and executive leadership care about margins, revenue growth, and business risk. These aren’t opposing goals, but they are different languages.
“We don’t talk to them about average handle times… We talk to them about revenue growth. We talk to them about margins. We talk to them about business risk.”
– Andrew Griffiths
Kate described it as identifying your differentiator, your one thing, and connecting it to the outcomes your executive leadership is already trying to achieve. Once CX is positioned as a revenue driver rather than a cost center, the funding conversation gets dramatically easier.
Ready to Unlock Your CX?
Outsource Consultants offers free, agnostic advisory conversations for brands who want to understand what CX they’re currently delivering and what’s possible. Whether you’re evaluating BPO partners, benchmarking against industry standards, or looking for a clear path to fund a technology investment, the team is here to help.
Book a CX Strategy Call or connect with Kate and Andrew directly on LinkedIn to continue the conversation.
