2025 Consulting & Professional Services Year-in-Review  (Part 2: Delivering Growth Amid Challenges)

Recently, we spoke to senior thought leaders to understand the key challenges facing the professional service industry in 2025. They discussed the toughest challenges they faced in 2025 and their expectations for 2026. Part two of our three-part year-in-review blog series focuses on how professional services delivered growth amid strong downward pressure.

We learned that many professional services firms have doubled down on leveraging technology. Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are key allies in the organizational pursuit of unlocking growth, efficiency, and profitability. This unprecedented thrust on technology comes against the backdrop of a consistent decline in EBITDA for professional services firms. According to the latest SPI report, professional services firms’ EBITDA shrank to 9.8% in 2024 from a peak of 16.1% in 2022.  

As new roadblocks further complicated project delivery in 2025, PS firms adopted a roadmap followed by early technology adopters, who benefited from AI’s transformative potential in improving resource management capabilities and client engagement outcomes. This new playbook has allowed firms to streamline operations, manage talent constraints, and address rising client expectations despite sustained headwinds.

AI and Automation: Lynchpins to Growth and Profitability

1. Leveraging AI for Improved Efficiencies

According to a recent McKinsey & Co. report, AI adoption is positively impacting organizational ability to innovate, improve customer satisfaction, and competitive differentiation. Findings also indicate that almost 9 out of 10 firms are using AI in at least one business function, compared to 8 out of 10 a year ago.  

For Andy Jordan, President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., AI was the focus of most of the tool and process work for his firm in 2025. His firm had been “using AI to assist with RFP responses, to analyze current operations to find efficiencies and eliminate errors, and modeling potential client solutions much more effectively than in the past,” he noted.  

Dave Hofferberth, Managing Director, Service Performance Insight (SPI) also shared that “every tool implemented over the past year” had an AI component, underlining the strategic nature of AI and automation for PS firms. “For most, artificial intelligence is seen as a long-term benefit for their organization,” he argued.

At the same time many consulting firms found growth by delivering packaged AI services. Examples include: 

• building custom copilots 
• automating client workflows 
• implementing domain-specific LLMs 

The result was new revenue lines and differentiation in a crowded market. 

2. An Enabler in Standardizing Processes and Workflows

As margins continue to tighten, AI and automation are allowing consulting and professional service firms to automate repetitive and manual tasks, freeing up time and resources for more rewarding and strategic growth initiatives. AI-powered tools and platforms are also shaping organizational ability to standardize workflows and processes. In fact, according to a Thomson Reuters report, GenAI’s central role in an organization’s workflow is expected to jump from 13% in 2025 to 42% in 2026, demonstrating how quickly firms are embracing AI and automation.  

Jason Mlicki, Principal of Rattleback, informed that his firm had laid much greater emphasis on “standardizing processes and workflows across clients.” This was helping productize portions of his firm’s “service and lean more heavily into AI to perform lower value tasks,” he shared.

3. Helping Boost Centralized Visibility, Collaboration

More firms are using AI platforms to gain a holistic and real-time view of their people, projects, and time. This real-time overview of organizational resources is empowering firms to make quick decisions, reduce project delays, and manage resources more prudently.

AI-powered tools and platforms helped deliver “faster project turnaround times, fewer dropped handoffs, and higher internal accountability, Scott Montgomery, Chief Customer Officer at Worldgate, LLC, said.

He shared that a combined CMS and workflow project management platform was “one of the most impactful tools” his firm implemented in 2025. According to Scott, this setup “helped the firm: 

1. Centralize project visibility across sales, staffing, and delivery 
2. Track and prioritize workstreams in real time, reducing email and meeting clutter 
3. Streamline cross-functional collaboration, especially between client-facing teams and back-office support, and
4. Automate repetitive tasks (like onboarding checklists, reminders, and status updates) to improve productivity without adding headcount.” 

Scott shared that this had been “especially valuable” as his firm scaled “to support long-term HCM integrations and public-sector demands through 2026.” 

Technology isn’t the whole story; the human element counts too! 

Even though most PS firms veered towards AI and automation to improve efficiency and productivity, managing the human element judiciously was an equally important differentiator. Another consistent theme among our leaders was that sustained change has fatigued teams. High-performance teams require structured frameworks to drive creativity, energy, and focus.  

According to Tissa Richards, CEO, www.tissarichards.com, Keynote Speaker & Award-Winning Author of "Rethinking Resilience: Fueling Your Competitive Advantage." 

“The real gains have come from how intentionally they’ve (PS firms) managed human energy, not just technological change. Tools can streamline workflows, but they can’t replace clarity, focus, and aligned priorities,” she said. “That’s what reduces the greatest areas of friction and unlocks the most creativity and productivity,” Tissa added, suggesting that technology alone was not a silver bullet that could expedite growth and unleash efficiency.

Hilary Fordwich, President, Strelmark, LLC, Business Development Consultants, emphasized, “Training & coaching regarding how to gain & retain clients is mission critical for professional service firms.” To succeed in 2026, firms will need to find new ways to build relationships, focusing on human connection, trust and likability, and not just adding new packages or services. 

Conclusion

In 2025, professional services firms have demonstrated that they can deliver growth and profitability by judicious technology adoption and process optimization. Firms that moved fast to embrace AI and automation were able to counter declining margins by improving operational efficiency and standardizing workflows. But the big takeaway from 2025 is that these technologies have shifted from being merely optional tools to strategic enablers.

Insights from industry thought leaders also underscore that AI is no longer confined to isolated use cases; it is embedded across core functions such as resource management and project delivery. The ability to quickly integrate AI can allow firms to reduce manual effort and accelerate turnaround times.

However, technology alone is not a guarantee for success. The most resilient and forward-looking firms combined AI-driven efficiencies with intentional management of human energy and priorities. They exhibited that aligning people, processes, and platforms can help minimize friction and overcome sustained challenges. With growing AI adoption, firms that prioritize a balance between technological innovation with human-centric leadership will be best positioned to sustain growth and deliver superior client outcomes in 2026.

Stay tuned for the third and final blog of the series. 

Thank You to These Thought Leaders for Their Insights:

1. Andy Jordan, President of Roffensian Consulting S.A. 
2. Dave Hofferberth, Managing Director, Service Performance Insight (SPI) 
3. Hilary Fordwich, President, Strelmark, LLC, Business Development Consultants 
4. Jason Mlicki, Principal of Rattleback 
5. Scott Montgomery, Chief Customer Officer at Worldgate, LLC 
6. Tissa Richards, CEO and Leadership Expert at www.tissarichards.com