Enterprise demand for AI is surging as intelligent agents transform how work gets done. In 2024 alone, private AI agent solutions and their underlying intelligence layer (LLMs) generated over $10B in revenue, a number we expect will more than double this year.
For professional services firms, this momentum poses an existential question: What happens to the traditional consulting model when clients have direct access to AI-powered expertise?
The industry is already pivoting. McKinsey has deployed around 12,000 AI agents internally to support consultants and enable leaner project teams. Meanwhile, Accenture announced in June that it would merge five units into a new “reinvention services” business line aimed at helping clients overhaul their operations with AI.
Across the sector, leading strategy and tech consulting firms have collectively pursued more than 100 AI agent-related partnerships, investments, and acquisitions since 2023, per CB Insights data.
Note: Graphic features publicly disclosed or otherwise confirmed relationships announced since 1/1/2023, focusing on AI agents & related infrastructure. It is not intended to be exhaustive. Click to enlarge.
The stakes are clear: with momentum building but enterprise pilots often stalling, the firms that move beyond advice to building and orchestrating will shape the future of the AI economy.
Drawing on CB Insights predictive intelligence and interviews with senior AI and data executives, this report offers a forward-looking roadmap for how professional services firms can capture value over the next two years and beyond. Our analysis points to four key strategic opportunities:
- Orchestrate the AI agent tech stack: Guide clients through implementation, integration, scaling, and governance of AI agents across fragmented infrastructure, from model selection to trust and performance management.
- Activate proprietary data for intelligent agents: Turn firm and client data into fuel for more capable, context-aware agents — differentiating through domain-specific IP, data infrastructure, and strategic partnerships.
- Turn services into scalable AI products: Evolve from custom consulting engagements to platform-based delivery, industry-specific solutions, and new pricing models.
- Build the human-AI workforce: Redesign internal talent models to work alongside AI agents while shaping offerings to help enterprises adopt and manage AI, from agents to robots.
Download the full report to discover leading firms’ strategic moves, where startup innovation is pointing, and promising partnership and acquisition targets — based on CB Insights predictive intelligence on the world’s companies and markets.
Table of contents
- Orchestrate the AI agent tech stack
- Core consulting workflows see AI agent disruption
- Firms are already leaning in to build the stack
- An AI ecosystem model is emerging
- Private market momentum points to key orchestration opportunities
- Agent reliability failures drive demand for governance layer
- Activate proprietary data for intelligent agents
- Leading firms build out the data layer for agentic AI
- Firms create data moats around core practice areas
- Turn services into scalable AI products
- Platform strategies replace project-based delivery
- Strategic startup investments reinvent the consultant’s toolkit
- Shifting service delivery drives pricing model experimentation
- Build the human-AI workforce
- Professional services firms face a workforce restructuring
- AI-native startups preview the future efficiency of enterprise workforces
- Managing AI becomes a new competitive moat
How we built this report: Over the last 9 months, we conducted in-depth interviews with senior leaders at leading professional services firms to understand the impact of AI agents on the future of the industry. To map out where the landscape is headed, we used CB Insights’ Market Intelligence Agents to interpret signals from across CB Insights data, including the following datasets and primary research:
- Industry partnerships, deal activity, earnings transcripts, and proprietary scores for company momentum
- Surveys with enterprise leaders and briefings with AI agent startups
Get full access with your free CB Insights trial: https://www.cbinsights.com/trial-signup/
Scope of professional services: This report focuses primarily on strategy and technology consulting firms (including the Big Four). While the industry extends to legal, engineering, and specialized advisory services, our analysis centers on firms that directly compete with or complement AI agent capabilities in enterprise transformation and technology implementation.
Note: Named firms did not review the data contained in this report.
In upcoming research on the future of professional services, we’ll dive deeper into competition in the “service-as-software” market and firms’ evolving talent models.
If you aren’t already a client, sign up for a free trial to learn more about our platform.