Most AI projects die in the meeting, not in the code. Somebody proposes automating somebody else's department, the department defends itself, the subject turns political and the project joins next quarter's queue. The problem was not the technology. It was the choice of target.
Changing supplier is a decision. Changing the org chart is a reorganization. Start with the decision.
Sequoia Capital puts the difference in one line: replacing an outsourcing contract with an AI supplier is a change of supplier; replacing your own people is a reorganization. Both can make sense. Only one of them can start on Monday.
Why outsourced work is the right target
The budget already exists. Nobody has to approve new money. You compare two proposals against the same budget line and the board understands it in thirty seconds.
The delivery is already measured. An outsourced service has deadlines, volume and acceptance criteria written into a contract. You do not have to invent a way to judge the result: you already judge it every month.
The work already left the building. You have already accepted that another company does this task. The emotional objection was settled years ago, and nobody on your team loses their badge if the supplier changes.
How to find yours, today
Open the accounts payable report for the last twelve months and filter by recurring supplier. Mark the ones selling reading, typing, classifying, checking or a standard reply — the work of reading something and deciding something. Sort by annual value. The first one on the list is your project.
Where this does not apply
An outsourced service that exists because of legal liability — a signed report, a formal opinion, an audit — does not change hands over price. There, AI helps the person who signs rather than replacing them. And a supplier you keep for the relationship rather than the volume is not a cost line: it is a channel.
Source: Sequoia Capital, "Services: The New Software" (Julien Bek, March 2026).
Bring your supplier list.
In two weeks we tell you which line can be swapped, what it costs to run and what happens when it gets something wrong.
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