01 / Establish the evidence
Independent Audit
Commission an institution-specific framework, a Phil-led independent review, or neutral interviews with financial institution and vendor personnel.
Akholi Practice / Phil Hatch
Outsourcing and Global Capability Center Advisory
Phil Hatch works with financial institutions to examine delivery and controls, prepare before major commitments, and lead recovery when engagements underperform. The practice covers outsourcing and global capability centers, with particular expertise in agentic artificial intelligence (AI).
Phil Hatch / Principal-led advisory / Financial institutions
Core Advisory Services
02 / Correct the problems
Engagement Recovery
Bring executive leadership to material service, reporting, workforce, and control problems in an outsourcing engagement or GCC.
03 / Prepare before commitment
Preparation and Readiness
Address material gaps before an outsourcing request for proposal, or test the case and operating model for a GCC investment.
Governance, Oversight, Control, and Risk
Formal arrangements need to hold when work changes, decisions are disputed, or an agent produces an unreliable result. Akholi examines the operating evidence and helps correct weaknesses in ownership, authority, oversight, and execution.
- Ownership and authorityNamed owners, reachable decision makers, escalation, and authority to suspend operation.
- Reporting integrityDefinitions, underlying work, exclusions, and the human effort behind reported results.
- Human oversight and changeReview capacity, meaningful approval, controlled changes, and evidence that actions were completed.
- Manual alterationHuman changes to data, processes, AI outputs, or reporting, and third-party work done by hand, with appropriate authorization and records.
Crisis Response
For an active outsourcing or GCC crisis, contact Phil Hatch for a personal response within 24 clock hours, including weekends. Scope, acceptance, authority, and mobilization are agreed directly. The response commitment is not a promise of resolution within 24 hours.
Executive Leadership and Assignment Responsibilities
Executive leadership
Direct involvement by Phil
Phil leads the sponsor discussions, difficult interviews, executive challenge, and interpretation. His published background includes more than 30 years in outsourcing, workforce development, and service delivery. Read Phil’s biography
Delivery capacity
A defined institutional team
The institution names accountable workstream owners and provides agreed access. Specialist support is identified and scoped when technical, legal, regulatory, or local operating expertise is required.
Independence
Separate audit and recovery mandates
Audit conclusions are not conditional on buying follow-on work. A recovery assignment is a management mandate. Material corrections led by Akholi are verified by qualified personnel who did not implement them.
Outsourcing and GCC Applications
Before procurement
Outsourcing preparation
Establish requirements, owners, evidence, and approval conditions before issuing the request for proposal.
A live engagement
Outsourcing recovery
Reconcile the facts and lead prioritized correction of delivery and control problems.
An investment decision
GCC planning
Test the delivery choices, investment case, operating model, and preparation requirements.
An owned delivery center
GCC performance and recovery
Address the gap between the center’s purpose and its actual service, capability, cost, and control performance.
Continuing executive support
Retained Sponsor Advisory
Reserve defined executive capacity for decisions, challenge, and oversight after a project or within an established relationship.
The research
The executive action plan
Seven proposed controls and a phased program of review, correction, and independent verification.
Research Basis and Scope
Download the complete study PDFPhil Hatch’s 2026 study examines 150 agentic AI outsourcing engagements through accounts from 850 vendor delivery-team respondents. It identifies reported weaknesses in preparation, shared management, controls, reporting, and the visibility of human work.
At least one form of manual alteration was reported on all 150 engagements. Written accounts classified as governance weaknesses also occurred on all 150. These findings support examination of actual delivery and control operation. They do not establish failure of every control.
The Executive Action Plan proposes independent review, direct access to delivery personnel, corrective action, and independent verification of material closure. Akholi translates those recommendations into a scoped institutional assignment.
Related evidence: financial institution readiness, co-management, and manual alteration.
The sample is not industry-representative. The findings are observational. They do not establish causation or legal breach, and the study did not test the proposed remedies or measure GCC performance.
Assignment Enquiries
Start with the concern, the decision you need to make, and the people responsible. Agree scope, access, responsibilities, timing, and fees directly with Phil Hatch.