TaskUs on Agentic AI, Tech-First Solutions, & the Future of Outsourcing – with Phil Tomlinson of TaskUs

The current time sees a pivotal turning point in outsourcing, and here to grace us on the podcast is one of the shining lights of the industry, TaskUs. 

SVP of Global Offerings Phil Tomlinson speaks with Derek about his role in the company and how it requires looking forward at how the industry could evolve. 

TaskUs

TaskUs is quite a familiar name in outsourcing, and Phil says that the company “sought to redefine what outsourcing means in the digital age.” 

The company began in 2008, a time that Phil describes as when tech companies weren’t the giants that we perceive them as today. Outsourcing was instead focused on other industries like healthcare, financial services, and telecommunications, to name a few. 

“TaskUs came along and said, ‘there’s all these cool companies out there, the social medias and the dating platforms and the gaming providers and everyone in between.’ 

That was the founding principle, [that] we need an outsourcing partner for this new type of client.” 

TaskUs was also the “first mover in bringing the employee experience to the sort of center of the value proposition.” 

As of 2024, the company has now recorded almost a billion dollars in revenue. Their primary call center business, called DCX (Digital Customer Experience), makes up 60% of their business, with more specialized services covering the other 40%. 

“A really nice way that I always try to explain it to the lay person is if you look up the top 10 most-used apps on your phone, those are probably our clients,” Phil quips. 

The hidden side of content moderation 

Phil recalls his time at Twitter before working at TaskUs and having to deal with content moderation. 

He notes that “there are real harms that the work itself can inflict on people who do the work.” 

He’s proud to say that TaskUs is right on top of this. 

“At TaskUs, we take that mission extremely seriously, and in fact have hired clinicians and mental health professionals.” 

Additionally, they’re also actively taking part in research. 

“We’re working on some studies and publishing to a number of peer-reviewed journals. We want to be part of the conversation. We want to be part of the solution.

Because the reality is most of the people around the world who work in content moderation today work for a company like TaskUs. They work for an outsource company.”

Phil gives praise to AI developments which have enabled greater efficiency in this space. 

“The reality is [that] on most of the large platforms today, the vast majority of content is already being flagged by AI. AI is doing a huge amount of heavy lifting at the top of the funnel.”

However, he points out an interesting fact. 

“Stuff that’s being flagged by AI is still being sent to humans for review, either for like a quality assessment to make sure the AI is performing correctly, or because the AI says, ‘Hey, I need a final human decision on this before I can actually make an enforcement decision.’

That’s where the handoff between AI and humans becomes really important.” 

Phil sees this as the right direction for companies integrating the technology. 

“I would love a world where AI can successfully stop most bad content from hitting a platform before a human ever sees it. The reality is there’s still a huge amount of human work that has to go into training those models to get better over time. 

And that’s the world that TaskUs is really moving into.”

Looking into future trends of the outsourcing industry

Phil describes part of his work as “looking at the future, sort of gazing into the crystal ball.”

Currently, this concerns the role of generative and agentic AI and how it will impact outsourcing and their clients businesses.  

On whether this signals the end of call centers, Phil is highly skeptical. 

“I do think that there will be winners and losers in the new paradigm and, and that those companies that can evolve and mature their offerings to match what the market needs will be the long-term winners.”

Like many, Phil takes a more practical view. 

“AI is a tool. [It’s] revolutionary, intelligent, remarkably useful, but it’s ultimately not going to replace the things that humans are very, very good at. Empathy, judgment, ambition, creativity.

There are always going to be customer service encounters that require high degrees of emotional intelligence. I think the winners, both on the platform side and on the outsourcing side, are gonna be those who balance the technology.” 

For TaskUs, the strategy lies in partnering with the tech builders. 

“Let’s find the folks out there building the best products, who have the best posture and appetite to partner. And let’s let them handle the tech and we handle everything else that’s beyond that.

Amidst fears of a possible recession, Phil is confident that TaskUs will continue its exemplary service.

“TaskUs is gonna focus on what we can control, which is being the best provider, being top-of-the-stack rank in terms of performance. Making sure that we [deliver] services that are valuable to our clients.

And I think that kind of a service is recession proof, right?”

If you’re curious to hear more about what TaskUs is doing, you can visit their website. You could also get in touch with Phil through his email at [email protected]. 

As always, if you have any questions about outsourcing and what we do, you can reach us at [email protected].