Inside TP's success on Frost Radar with the president of Asia-Pacific Dave Rizzo

In today's hyper-competitive landscape, business success hinges not just on excellent products but also on the ability to foster meaningful, emotionally intelligent relationships with customers, powered by cutting-edge technology and human insight.

As organisations face rising expectations for personalised, seamless engagement, the fusion of emotional intelligence (EI) with artificial intelligence (AI) is redefining what it means to deliver customer value at scale.

Against this backdrop, Frost & Sullivan's renowned Frost Radar benchmarking tool stands as the gold standard for recognising Asia-Pacific's dynamic and innovative organisations. This year, TP (formerly known as Teleperformance) has once again secured its position atop the Frost Radar for Customer Experience Management in Asia-Pacific, earning distinction not only for its service excellence, but also for its pioneering EI/AI-driven approach to business transformation and growth.

This recognition marks TP's seventh consecutive year as a Frost Radar leader, a testament to its relentless pursuit of excellence and vision for the future of EI and AI-powered customer engagement in Asia-Pacific.

At the centre of this achievement is Dave Rizzo, President of TP Asia-Pacific, whose leadership has propelled TP to the number one spot for Growth and Innovation, outperforming more than 200 regional and global competitors.

In this exclusive interview, Rizzo shares insights into how TP's integrated high-tech, high-touch model continues to set new industry benchmarks, fuel digital innovation, and deliver lasting value for clients across the region.

What does being recognised as a leader on the 2025 Frost Radar report mean for TP's strategy in Asia-Pacific, and how does it validate your efforts in the region?

Rizzo: "This recognition is significant. It validates our strategic investments across the region and reinforces our position as the partner of choice for enterprises seeking transformational customer experience solutions. Asia-Pacific is one of the most dynamic and diverse markets globally, and being recognised as number one for both Growth and Innovation demonstrates that our localised approach, combined with our internal development and global scale, resonates strongly with clients.

What makes this particularly gratifying is that this marks our seventh consecutive year as a Frost Radar leader. This highlights our efforts to adapt to changes and continuously rethink our key differentiators, working on how these can be translated into services that deliver value to our clients.

This recognition validates our years of investment in fusing technology with human expertise. It also reflects the discipline of our local teams, who are constantly driving positive transformation."

Frost Radar evaluates businesses based on two indices: innovation and growth. In your view, what are the most significant factors in your innovation strategies that affected your growth?

Rizzo: "Innovation has always been at the core of our growth strategy. What drives results for TP is our ability to deploy high-impact technologies, like AI-driven analytics, omnichannel platforms, and real-time automation, while never losing sight of the human element. Every technological advancement we pursue must ultimately enhance the human experience for our clients, customers, and team members.

Our TP Infinity digital consulting arm is a perfect example. We didn't just add consulting services; we fundamentally reimagined how we could guide clients through their entire digital transformation journey. By combining consulting, technology, data analytics, and creative services under one umbrella, we can deliver integrated solutions that drive measurable business outcomes.

In addition, we take pride in developing TP's proprietary and partner AI solutions within TP.ai FAB's orchestration layer, including TPInteract (interaction analytics), TP Powersteering (a suite of AI-powered tools for Agent productivity), TPUnify, TP Recommender (Predictive analytics), PersonaAI (multilingual conversation AI), among others.

These new technologies and tools allow us to grow and better serve our clients. Our growth is fueled by strategic expansion, particularly in Asia-Pacific, and deliberate sector diversification. Frost Radar recognised our exceptional vertical strength across Asia-Pacific, with our leadership position in high-growth sectors including technology, social media, online entertainment and gaming, travel and hospitality, BFSI, and healthcare.

Additionally, through strategic acquisitions like Majorel and the launch of TP Infinity, TP has expanded beyond traditional CX services to encompass comprehensive digital transformation capabilities, demonstrating strong revenue growth and client retention with an average tenure of 16+ years among top enterprise clients.

We also credit our highly skilled team for their crucial role in scaling TP's high-tech, high-touch approach. We take workforce development seriously, acknowledging its role in making innovation and growth happen.

These efforts manifest in sophisticated delivery models, including multilingual hubs and world-class talent development for 500,000 employees who undergo eLearning, EI testing, and a comprehensive AI training programme. All these ensure we deliver market-relevant digital transformation and operational excellence to all our clients in the Asia-Pacific market.

Our success is rooted in our commitment to delivering our four pillars: customer base expansion, enhanced solution offerings, sustained delivery of exceptional services, and fostering a Great Place to Work culture.

This "best of both worlds" philosophy has helped us sustain above-market growth, unlock new verticals, and quickly adapt to evolving client needs. TP now has an unparalleled network of over 90 delivery centres in central Asia-Pacific locations, serving more than 22 regions in 24 languages with different shoring options: in-country, nearshore, multilingual hub, and Cloud Campus solutions."

The report mentions your "high-tech, high-touch, high-standards strategy." What is this all about, and how does the company ensure it is reflected in its day-to-day operations?

Rizzo: "This strategy encapsulates the essence of who we are. "High-tech" refers to how we push boundaries in digital transformation, adopting best-in-class tools, from automated quality assurance to advanced data insights and AI-powered platforms.

"High-touch" means we never lose focus on the human connection: our teams act with empathy, cultural literacy, and a deep understanding of customer needs. "High standards" reflect our commitment to operational excellence. This is not just in how we serve clients, but also in how we train, support, and challenge our teams to grow at every level.

We bring this to life by embedding our EI/AI framework across recruitment, onboarding, employee development, and daily client interaction, measured by client feedback, employee NPS, and operational KPIs."

What are the challenges you experienced in the pursuit of innovation and growth? How did you overcome them?

Rizzo: "The biggest challenge has been managing the pace of change while maintaining service excellence. The Asia-Pacific region is incredibly diverse; what works in Japan might not work in India or Australia. We've had to innovate rapidly while ensuring our solutions are culturally appropriate and locally relevant.

Integration complexity has been another significant challenge. When deploying AI-powered solutions across multiple markets, languages, and regulatory environments, ensuring seamless operation requires tremendous coordination. We've overcome this by investing heavily in our cloud infrastructure, globally recognised security certifications, and developing standardised integration protocols that can be customised for local requirements.

Perhaps most importantly, we've had to change internal mindsets. Moving from a traditional outsourcing model to a strategic partnership approach requires different skills, metrics, and client relationships. We've invested significant time and resources in training our teams to think like consultants and business advisors, not just service providers.

Krishna Baidya, Senior Industry Director at Frost & Sullivan, also provides his expert analysis on what drove TP's recognition, detailing how the company exemplifies the innovation and growth excellence that defines Frost Radar leaders.

From an analyst's perspective, how does TP exemplify the growth and innovation criteria that the Frost Radar benchmarks?

Baidya: "TP exemplifies our benchmarking criteria in several compelling ways. On the innovation front, they've demonstrated remarkable scalability of their solutions across both developed and emerging markets within Asia-Pacific. Their EI/AI integration isn't just a technological advancement; it's a fundamental reimagining of how customer experience can be delivered at scale while maintaining an authentic human connection.

From a growth perspective, TP has shown consistent revenue expansion, strategic market penetration, and most importantly, an ability to evolve its value proposition as market conditions change. They've moved beyond traditional outsourcing metrics to focus on client business outcomes, which is exactly what we see from industry leaders building sustainable competitive advantages.

Their acquisition of capabilities through strategic partnerships, like the Majorel integration, and their investment in centres of excellence across India, Singapore, and other key markets, demonstrate an aggressive yet thoughtful growth strategy. Their "high-tech, high-touch" approach moves beyond traditional CX to integrate emotional intelligence into every engagement, setting a gold standard for innovation and growth in the Asia-Pacific market."

Your analysis highlights TP's distinctive EI/AI approach. From an industry research perspective, why is this combination particularly significant in today's business environment?

Baidya: "The EI/AI combination addresses one of the most critical challenges in today's customer experience: delivering personalisation and empathy at scale. Most companies fall into one of two traps. They either over-automate and lose the human touch or rely too heavily on human intervention and can't achieve the efficiency and consistency that modern customers expect.

TP's approach is particularly significant because they recognise that emotional intelligence isn't just about human agents. It's about designing AI systems that identify, interpret, and respond appropriately to emotional cues. This creates a multiplier effect where technology amplifies human capabilities rather than replacing them.

From a market dynamics perspective, this positions TP perfectly for the future. As AI becomes more commoditised, the differentiator will be how effectively companies can integrate these tools with human insight and emotional understanding. TP is already operating in that future state."

Dave, what's next for TP after this Frost Radar recognition? How can this recognition influence your market expansion strategy? Are there any new capabilities or markets you prioritise for future growth in the Asia-Pacific region?

Rizzo: "Our journey doesn't stop here. If anything, this is a launching pad. The recognition adds to our credibility as a trusted CX and digital transformation partner, opening doors to new markets and larger-scale opportunities, especially in emerging economies and high-growth sectors like fintech, healthtech, and digital commerce.

With our new state-of-the-art sites in Bali and Bangkok, we position ourselves at the forefront of digital and physical CX delivery. These sites underpin our goal to provide not just support but expertise-driven transformation to domestic and international clients. We look forward to expanding the scale and capabilities of India's multicultural team to 150,000 employees and investing in advanced Centres of Excellence (CoEs) focused on AI and global services. Strategic expansion,

We will continue introducing proprietary platforms, expanding multilingual capabilities, and innovating in trust, safety, and compliance areas. The bar will keep rising, but we're also committed to keeping pace to drive real-world business results for our clients."

This article is brought to you by TP.