HCLTech Advances its Total Experience Services Through AI-led Operating Model Transformation

In September 2026, TBR spoke with HCLTech’s Enterprise Transformation & Advisory team about its Total Experience Services portfolio, which combines customer experience, employee experience and user experience into a single, unified framework, and how the advent of AI has accelerated the need for a connected and unified experience. HCLTech leadership also emphasized the need for Responsible AI to ensure that every layer of AI remains safe, governed and trustworthy, an essential aspect for IT services vendors to engage effectively with clients. 

Central platforms to overcome friction in experience

In an ever-connected world, HCLTech established its Total Experience offerings to create a unified user and customer experience for its clients, removing pain points and friction across teams and departments. The transformation begins with the operating model, as many companies have different platforms and experience solutions across functions. The goal of the company’s experience solutions is to connect users across operations by optimizing and redesigning operating models.
 
Lester Lam, HCLTech’s EVP of Enterprise Transformation & Advisory, discussed key market trends that are increasing the need for and relevance of HCLTech’s Total Experience Services. The notable market trend for TBR is the increasing pressure on clients to scale experience transformations. This trend is making it easier for vendors to convince clients to modernize legacy systems and adopt an AI-led operating model.

Lam explained that clients mainly face operational challenges, leading HCLTech to focus on operating model transformation and connecting all parts of the organization. The friction caused by managing disparate systems could be alleviated through AI, creating opportunities for HCLTech around advisory, design, implementation and management. By leveraging AI, HCLTech shortens analysis and workflow planning time, helping clients design systems that address their challenges faster and more cohesively.
 
HCLTech structures its Total Experience Services around three main groups — business, product and platforms. The groups help clients set and achieve outcomes by focusing on internal experience (business), services and products delivered (product), and underlying technology (platform), all grounded in a foundational level of experience. Lam also noted that establishing an AI-led operating model is the key to improving experiences and ensuring the transformation sticks by uniting all groups under one strategy.
 
According to Nish Trivedi, HCLTech’s SVP of Enterprise Transformation & Advisory, enterprises must transform six core levers to reshape their operating models effectively. The six enablers include strategy & alignment; governance, funding & value; data, platforms & AI; organization & roles; talent & culture; and execution model. HCLTech’s clear definition of AI-led operating model transformation and the key levers that need to be modernized to ensure the client can sustain the transformation set the company apart from its peers. Helping clients connect functions across their business through experience and underlying platforms requires all six levers to operate efficiently while also leveraging data and insights from interactions and customer engagements. HCLTech’s strategy aims to push clients’ organizations to operate as one and use standardized base levels that drive lasting change within enterprises and enable seamless cross-collaboration.

XMO

Trivedi outlined the HCLTech Experience Management Office (XMO), part of its Application Management Services portfolio, which aims to deliver business outcomes by integrating technology and human expertise. Embedding the XMO function into its Total Experience services improves HCLTech’s ability to create effective pathways to achieve outcomes, while combining the user experience with human touchpoints for more personalized and seamless experiences. Trivedi emphasized how HCLTech leverages personas and customer journeys to test its platform, identify challenges and determine how to fix them.
 
Using the XMO approach modernizes HCLTech’s ability to personalize the experience with a simple framework that still delivers value. Matching human touchpoints with the technology experience allows HCLTech to strengthen connections between employees and platforms as well as connections across units. The framework’s repeatable nature, paired with specialized personas, helps HCLTech accelerate engagements while maintaining client stickiness.

Change management

HCLTech would be remiss if it did not acknowledge the impact that AI and experience solutions have on traditional workflows, organizational structures and talent needs. According to Lam, the main challenge is distrust of AI, and organizations must recognize the problem to support change management. Lam noted that enterprises need transparency and acknowledgment to guide the talent transition and provide the resources to properly leverage new technology for greater productivity. Additionally, the theme of continuous change across organizations — including talent, portfolio, structure, partner ecosystems and strategy — that TBR has followed closely remains essential for enterprises to keep pace with changing technologies and client needs.
 
Change management is an essential piece of transformation and is considered an experience management lever for HCLTech. Guiding clients through the workflow and process transition ensures they can achieve outcomes, positioning HCLTech to generate value for its clients. HCLTech’s efforts to align its priorities with those of its clients are reflected in its change management approach, which considers AI-native needs and impacts. Lam also noted how HCLTech recognizes change fatigue among enterprises’ employees, given the frequent introduction of new tools, platforms and processes. Addressing these issues while bringing in a cohesive strategy and experience platform to improve workflows will help clients increase productivity. However, doing so requires careful consideration of these challenges and strategies to manage them effectively.
 
To ease these challenges and concerns within clients’ organizations, HCLTech leverages its Responsible AI framework to bring trust and governance across every AI layer. Heather Domin, HCLTech’s VP of Responsible AI, said that to fully realize value, clients need to blend AI capabilities, human adoption and earned trust. HCLTech’s Responsible AI involves educating and building understanding of risk, including how it will evolve. While it is impossible to predict all future risks, HCLTech’s Responsible AI prepares clients to respond to internal and external threats by establishing controls such as risk-based guardrails that depend on AI agent tasks, adding societal safeguards and human checkpoints, and ensuring leadership alignment.
 
Responsible AI presents many opportunities for HCLTech, particularly as concerns about AI use and controls grow. HCLTech can use these capabilities to strengthen clients’ existing AI environments with additional controls and insight into operations. Embedding responsible AI practices across its portfolio will strengthen HCLTech’s value proposition and build client confidence in integrating AI into their operating models by expanding human-in-the-loop capabilities and clarifying how to implement and monitor usage controls.

Client example

Lester explained how a global retail client used Total Experience to improve its brand management, operating model and digital marketing strategy. HCLTech helped the client rewire its operating model to improve demand ideation and enhance workflows. The main transformation focused on the client’s digital marketing strategy and consolidating brand management into one unit to create more cohesive, consistent operations. Additionally, simplifying the operating model helped HCLTech centralize the client’s brand and strategy to better leverage insights and data.
 
The main change that stands out to TBR is the reorganization of products and brands and the resulting impact on the client’s marketing and engagement with consumers. Lam noted that the platform is the same at its core but enables brands to create their own baseline metrics, identify areas of highest engagement, and retain their differentiated qualities.
 
This engagement is a strong use case for HCLTech’s AI-driven operational model transformations and the need for consistent, personalized experiences. It showcases HCLTech’s expertise beyond technology implementation and into talent strategies, including development, simplification, optimization and change management. Emphasizing these capabilities strengthens HCLTech’s position as a trusted AI partner by focusing on talent transformation and optimizing operations so clients can fully benefit from AI, starting with the operating model.

Conclusion

According to TBR’s Digital Transformation: Digital Marketing Services Benchmark, “As one of the most mature components of digital transformation, customer experience continues to push buyers toward omnichannel programs that unify data, workflows and engagement across the customer life cycle.”
 
HCLTech has quickly advanced experience solutions and created customer and employee journeys through its portfolio to capitalize on the demand outlined above. Focusing on cohesive strategies that work together removes friction and increases the value of insights and data through standardized approaches and frameworks. Lastly, HCLTech highlights the value of its change management portfolio, which optimizes talent structures and facilitates the adoption of AI tools to shift toward higher-value services attached to AI-led transformations while securing client relationships.
 
HCLTech’s ©Human Intensity Reduction Index (HIRI) has remained above its peer average as the company is diligent about staying on top of demand and avoiding hiring talent ahead of services needs. While HCLTech progressively embeds AI agents and leverages advanced tools internally to drive productivity, the company has not significantly increased its service volume with a similar amount of talent. Effective management of talent, including training and the addition of specialized skills, helps HCLTech bring in-demand services to clients and will lead to HIRI improvement.