In a candid conversation with IT Voice, Joy Sharma unpacks how EZ is reshaping India’s global identity — from being the back office of the world to becoming its AI-powered “Services Factory.” With over 70+ B2B offerings and a pay-per-output model, EZ is pioneering a new era of intelligent, scalable, and compliant service delivery.
IT Voice- India has traditionally served as the back office to the world. With the emergence of AI-led companies like EZ, are we seeing a shift towards India becoming an intelligent solutions hub?
Joy Sharma : India’s role in the global economy is undergoing a fundamental reset. What was once a story of cost arbitrage is rapidly becoming one of capability leadership. We’re not just executing tasks anymore; we’re building intelligent systems, powered by proprietary AI agents, that accelerate delivery, enhance precision, and reduce cost across the board. At EZ, the shift is visible in our architecture, where data, technology, and human capital converge to deliver solutions, not just services. This isn’t about offshoring support anymore; it’s about positioning India as a global brain trust, the place where decisions are made, strategies are executed, and value is created in real time.
IT Voice-You refer to EZ as the “Services Factory of the World.” What does this model look like in real terms, and how do you manage standardization across such diverse service categories?
Joy Sharma : The “Services Factory of the World” is our blueprint for delivering scalable, standardized, yet flexible service solutions across more than 70+ B2B soft service offerings – unified under a single umbrella, more than any other organization globally. Imagine it as an assembly line of outcomes: each service is modularized into precise process units, much like manufacturing cells, enabling us to streamline complexity. Proprietary AI agents ensure quality, speed, and consistency across categories through AI-led standardization, while global control towers provide centralized, real-time visibility of KPIs, service SLAs, and exception handling. This unique model allows us to deliver complex, diverse services with manufacturing-grade efficiency while retaining the agility to customize for each client’s unique needs.
IT Voice- You’ve integrated proprietary AI agents across various verticals, including hiring. How do you determine where AI brings the most value versus where human expertise is still essential?
Joy Sharma : We don’t deploy AI everywhere just because we can; we deploy it where it drives exponential value. Tasks that are high-volume, rule-based, or time-sensitive are ideal for AI dominance. These include areas like data cleansing, transaction processing, and the first level of hiring assessments. On the other hand, when the work involves nuanced decision-making, contextual understanding, or cultural interpretation, such as advisory conversations or negotiations, we rely on human expertise. To manage this balance at scale, we’ve developed our own AI-Human Suitability Framework that continuously assesses which tasks should be automated, which should be augmented, and which require a human in the loop. It’s a living system that evolves with work.
IT Voice- Unlike traditional service firms, EZ offers 70+ services on a pay-per-output model, with no retainers. What inspired this approach, and how has it reshaped client relationships?
Joy Sharma : The pay-per-output model was born from a simple truth: clients need agility, transparency, and outcomes, not billing hours. Traditional retainers were slow, rigid, and misaligned with how modern businesses operate. Our model flips that. Clients pay for what gets delivered, not what gets discussed. This shift has changed the nature of our relationships. First, it builds instant trust; clients know they’re paying for performance. Second, it adds day-to-day flexibility, and service volumes can flex up or down without any contractual bottlenecks. And third, it naturally leads to long-term partnerships, because the model scales with the client. Over time, we stop being seen as a vendor and become an embedded part of the team.
IT Voice- In the evolving B2B landscape, what structural shifts do you believe are needed in client-agency partnerships to fully unlock such a model?
Joy Sharma : To unlock the full potential of modern delivery models, we need to fundamentally rewire how client-agency partnerships function. First, agencies can no longer be outsiders; they need to be embedded within the client’s daily operations, working side-by-side as extended team members. Second, we must move away from rigid scopes and toward performance-based goals, because what clients care about is impact, not effort. Third, collaboration needs to be real-time and transparent, not periodic and reactive. Shared dashboards, faster updates, and always-on communication are key to building trust. The world of AI is evolving at lightning speed – new tools, new use cases, and new possibilities are emerging every day. Both clients and agencies need to stay curious, stay agile, and be open to experimenting together. That’s where the real breakthroughs will happen.
IT Voice- Many firms are leveraging LLMs today, but what sets EZ’s AI strategy apart? How do you ensure that your innovation delivers substance rather than hype?
Joy Sharma : The market is crowded with LLM-led solutions that often prioritize hype over substance. But it’s important to remember – LLMs are just one part of the AI ecosystem. AI is much broader, and data science, in fact, carries an even wider range of high-impact, real-world applications.
At EZ, we bring together the full stack of capabilities across LLMs, core AI, and advanced data science. Interestingly, only a small part of our toolkit relies on LLMs. Most of our solutions are built on proprietary AI models and robust data science frameworks that we’ve trained in-house to solve practical, complex business challenges.
Our focus has always been grounded in what works – reducing turnaround times, improving accuracy, driving cost efficiencies, and delivering outcomes that are clearly visible in our clients’ dashboards. We’re not in the race for shiny trends – we’re engineering sustainable, scalable, and process-driven AI solutions that truly create value.
In short, we deliver proof, not promises.
IT Voice- For heavily regulated sectors like finance and legal, how do you balance aggressive AI adoption with compliance and global data governance?
Joy Sharma : For us, compliance isn’t a constraint; it’s a core design principle. From day zero, our systems are built to meet the needs of regulated industries. Most of our AI solutions operate directly on client infrastructure, ensuring that data never leaves their environment. We do not use third-party platforms where there’s any risk of data exposure. In fact, in sectors like finance and legal, we often embed parts of our AI stack within the client’s servers for complete control. Beyond infrastructure, we’ve developed sector-specific governance frameworks that include audit trails, explainability, and localized compliance for mandates like GDPR, HIPAA, and RBI regulations. And where critical decisions are involved, we use hybrid models, AI accelerates the work, but humans make the calls. That’s how we scale without ever compromising trust.
IT Voice- With over 90% client retention and no traditional sales team, what would you say has been EZ’s most underrated growth driver?
Joy Sharma : It’s our delivery mindset. Along with the AI layer, the real engine behind our growth is operational excellence. Our internal systems, from quality controls to playbooks, are designed for consistency and scalability. Every client experience is carefully managed, and that consistency fuels both trust and referrals. Without a traditional sales team, our growth has been largely organic, driven by clients who expand their engagement because the work speaks for itself. Our AI-powered self-service portal has also quietly become a major contributor, making it easy for clients to explore and adopt new services without a sales pitch. It’s silent growth, but very deliberate.
IT Voice- As you expand globally, how do you localize your “services factory” model to different markets without compromising on scale or efficiency?
Joy Sharma : We are globally local! Localization is a core part of how we scale. Our services factory operates with centralized logic, meaning the core processes, AI tools, and delivery metrics remain consistent worldwide. But we localize everything else, the people, the language, the regulations, and the cultural nuances. In every new market, we establish in-country teams that understand the local context deeply. Our AI agents are also retrained with local data to adapt to behavior, tone, and region-specific compliance. This gives us the best of both worlds: global predictability with local relevance. We’re not exporting a fixed model; we’re customizing a flexible blueprint.
IT Voice- Looking ahead to 2030, what radical transformation do you foresee in the way businesses consume services, be it pricing, delivery models, or talent strategies?
Joy Sharma : By 2030, I believe businesses will fundamentally shift towards tokenized, not just productized, services. Services will be broken down into granular workflows, where every step is quantified, tokenized, and priced independently – bringing unprecedented transparency and control to service consumption. We will also see the democratization of service delivery. Success will hinge on individuals focusing on executing their tasks within predefined, intelligent workflows, governed by built-in QA mechanisms. The time spent on managing the process will be drastically reduced. Procurement will also transform – organizations will move towards service factory, single platforms where a broad range of pre-approved services can be consumed seamlessly, eliminating the need to manage multiple vendors. Pricing, delivery, and talent strategies will converge into one streamlined ecosystem that prioritizes efficiency, accountability, and flexibility at scale.
