Businesses of all sizes set their sights on two core goals (beyond, of course, driving revenue): cutting costs and improving efficiency.
Outsourcing helps businesses do both by giving companies access to affordable expertise. Whether on or off-shore, outsourcing has been an accelerating trend through the 21st century. A trend that hit hyper-speed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses became more comfortable with global outsourcing, which allowed them to adapt more quickly and access expertise that may not be available or too expensive locally.
Outsourcing is driving innovation at companies large and small. It's worth understanding the top outsourcing stats and trends so you and your business can take advantage of opportunities and stay competitive.
Table of contents
- Why Businesses Outsource
- Outsourcing Statistics and Trends
- Outsourcing Benefits Statistics
- Outsourcing Statistics Across Markets
- Outsourcing Trends and Predictions
- Future-Proof Your Teams with Prialto
Why Businesses Outsource
Outsourcing is the act of delegating business processes to another company or independent contractor. They can sit in your office, somewhere else in your country, or internationally. Businesses choose to outsource for numerous reasons, including cost savings, access to specialized talent, streamlining operations, short-term projects, fast hiring, and more.
Simply put, outsourcing is often more affordable and easier for businesses to manage. It also comes in a number of forms to augment teams across your company.
Outsourcing Statistics and Trends
The global outsourcing market is significant, and it's growing fast. According to Grand View Research, the outsourcing market was worth $302.62 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach 525.23 billion by 2030.
This makes sense, as the numbers suggest the talent pool isn't yet keeping up with evolving business needs and technology. A 2025 ManPowerGroup study found that 74% of employers say they are struggling to find the skilled talent they need.
In 2024, 80% of executives surveyed by Deloitte reported that they are planning to maintain or increase investment in third-party outsourcing. 50% of executives reported that they were using outsourced services for front-office capabilities like sales, marketing, and R&D when, traditionally, outsourcing has been reserved for back-office processes.
Overall, 66% of U.S. companies report outsourcing in at least one department.
This data indicates that the outsourcing industry is evolving quickly, providing businesses with new opportunities and efficiencies and adapting to new technologies.
Outsourcing Benefits Statistics
According to Deloitte's 2024 survey, 70% of businesses cited "cost savings" as their primary outsourcing driver in 2020. Now, only 34% of businesses say cost is the primary driver.
The primary benefits businesses are looking for are much more spread than they once were and include:
- Improving access to talent – 42%
- Increasing customer demands – 35%
- Spend optimization – 34%
- Improved quality/performance – 33%
- Adoption of global delivery model – 33%
Outsourcing is no longer simply a strategy for filling a company's talent pool. It represents a core function in businesses across all sizes—helping to optimize spend, performance, and efficiency.
Outsourcing Statistics Across Markets
IT and Software Development
IT is one of the biggest outsourcing markets out there. 76% of Deloitte's surveyed businesses in 2022 were already outsourcing their IT functions. More than 1/3 of U.S. IT-related tasks are handled by external providers. This includes functions like web hosting, software development outsourcing, and IT administration.
By 2029, the IT outsourcing market alone is expected to reach a market volume of $290.30 billion—in part driven by the widespread application of cloud-based outsourcing, AI, and machine learning.
Administrative Outsourcing
Administrative outsourcing, primarily made up of virtual assistant services, is a significant subset of business process outsourcing. These services support the administrative needs of executives, marketing teams, HR & recruiting teams, sales operations, and accounting and finance teams.
It has been estimated that hiring a virtual assistant over a full-time employee can save up to 78% in overhead and operating costs per year. Virtual assistants also are productivity experts, giving their clients access to faster, more efficient workers at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.
The global virtual assistant market is projected to reach $44.25 billion by 2027, and there are at least 40 million virtual assistants working worldwide. The demand for virtual assistants is expected to continue to grow.
Customer Support Outsourcing
According to Deloitte's 2024 survey, increasing customer demands is the primary driver for third-party outsourcing for 35% of those surveyed. 90% of customers say an "immediate" response is important or very important to them when communicating with customer service teams. This trend has driven companies to outsource all or part of their customer support operations in an attempt to meet evolving customer needs.
The global outsourced customer experience market was estimated to be worth $82.23 billion in 2024.
We've seen customer support outsourcing take place on a large scale for enterprise tech and telecommunication companies for over ten years now. Small and mid-sized companies are starting to adopt outsourced solutions for customer support as a cost-saving, efficient method for managing customer communications. New technologies, like AI-powered chat and sophisticated ticketing systems, are making customer support outsourcing more effective and efficient.
Outsourcing Trends and Predictions
Nobody can see the future, but we can look at what we're seeing right now and make some predictions.
1. AI and Automation Workflow Integrations
As technology evolves, so does the workforce. Many believe that AI and automation will replace the functions that are currently being outsourced. We would posit that it's not replacing this stuff; it's augmenting their abilities.
The automation of routine tasks frees up outsourced staff to step out of the weeds to take on strategic initiatives and more complex functions. This increases scalability and decreases errors.
Additionally, outsourced employees who handle these technologies have a competitive advantage. They can take on the responsibility of running automated workflows and utilizing cutting-edge AI tools.
As technology continues to evolve, so will the outsourcing industry.
2. Data Security Takes Center Stage
Data privacy, compliance, and security is an ever-evolving, ever-growing concern for businesses. Outsourcing has, in the past, been associated with some risk. You're taking data outside the confines of your company and its systems. Fraud, data breaches, and digital theft are a constant concern, and the perpetrators are only getting more sophisticated.
3. A Shift Towards Managed Models
In the past, a big portion of the outsourcing market has been to contractors and freelancers. Companies bring them on for short stints to cover critical business needs.
While this kind of outsourcing has its benefits, it also has the drawbacks associated with having to manage them and ensuring they're trustworthy with secure technology. If they leave, companies are forced to go through the hiring process again.
Managed outsourcing models (like Prialto) overcome many of these drawbacks by providing not only the talent but also internal management, training, and resources.
4. Quality Over Quantity
In the past, outsourcing has mainly been for manpower purposes. Over recent years, there's been a shift towards outsourcing more skilled professionals and roles. Sometimes, even executive roles are introduced with fractional CXOs.
We expect to see outsourcing at all levels become more common as technology and globalization make outsourced talent more available.
5. Partnering For Strategy, Not Just Execution
Outsourcing relationships are becoming more than the traditional man-power relationship. These relationships are becoming consultative and collaborative. They help businesses adapt to changing markets and are made up of subject matter experts.
As a side-effect of these consultative relationships, outsourcing is becoming a long-term engagement, fostering deeper, more effective partnerships.
Future-Proof Your Teams with Prialto
At Prialto, we know all about outsourcing trends. We study them, and sometimes we set them.
Prialto is a SOC-2 Type 1 compliant managed subscription staffing company, which means you get all the benefits of a traditional virtual assistant service plus the benefits of internal management, ongoing training and expertise, backup support, and an engagement manager.
It isn't just administrative support. It's a partnership built on over 15 years of administrative expertise.