But clients are choosy: They want to work with firms that have credibility in the emerging tech space. We set out five ways consultants can talk about tech in a compelling and convincing way.

1. Talk about the practical applications that clients say they need

Now that the early buzz around genAI has dampened, businesses have started to take a more discerning look at the technology. They have started to ask themselves where the greatest potential lies for their own organisation. Firms that talk to these practical applications are more likely to catch the attention of busy clients who currently feel under pressure from many angles.

Our research shows that clients see the strongest use cases for genAI in fraud detection and cybersecurity, closely followed by data augmentation, data analysis & decision making, and marketing content generation. They see a less compelling case for procurement, legal services, and recruitment.

2. Speak to the risks clients are concerned about

While clients are enthusiastic about AI, they are worried about the risks that come with it. Security vulnerabilities are at the top of that list, and this is a challenge that is constantly evolving and needs deep, technical expertise to tackle it. Ethical concerns, such as the misuse of AI-generated content for malicious purposes, are another source of worry—and keeping on top of regulation may be complex and time consuming. And then, on the commercial side, clients are worried about investing heavily when their customers may prefer to interact with humans.

If consultants recognise and empathise with these concerns, and offer solutions that help mitigate them, then they will have a greater chance of winning work over their competitors.

3. Ground your discussions in implementation

A trend across our research this year is the shift in demand from tech strategy services to implementation. Clients have spent time thinking about tech and now want to put their plans into action and deliver hard returns.

However, when it comes to emerging technology, they face real challenges around implementation: They feel they lack the necessary skills, with 33% of clients selecting this as one of their two biggest barriers. Compounding this, they say they don’t know where this technology can be applied (28%), and they feel under pressure with too many other strategic and operational issues on their plate (25%).

Firms can position themselves to win this work by demonstrating that they possess those in-demand tech skills and by having teams in place that can deliver at pace.

4. Showcase how you are using AI in your own firm

When it comes to choosing a firm to work with, clients want advisors with credibility and a strong track record in the AI space. This is no small ask when the consulting market for this technology is still in its infancy. However, when client case studies are limited, this can be more about demonstrating how the firm itself is using emerging technology.

Clients want to see this in action, with 71% of them saying that they want firms to use AI in the way they deliver professional services to them (29% said that this was essential, and 42% a nice-to-have). Areas of the consulting process that they most expect to be replaced include qualitative data analysis, writing computer code, and risk management.

5. Reflect market sentiment when you talk to clients

Identifying when the tipping point in demand for AI services will occur remains a challenge, which we are monitoring closely at Source. And while a limited number of firms say they are already picking up a notable volume of work in this space, most firms and our own data are telling us that work on AI remains small scale and exploratory at this stage.

Back in Q3 2023, 97% of clients said they were likely to use consulting support for the implementation of AI and similar technologies, and while clients may have delayed buying those services somewhat, this need clearly hasn’t disappeared. Encouragingly, spend on wider consulting services looks set to return to more healthy levels of growth, with 88% of clients in our latest quarterly survey saying they expect their use of professional services firms to increase over the next two years. Tech implementation, exploiting AI opportunities, and tech strategy were the first, third, and fourth priorities respectively, indicating that AI demand is not slowing down.

So, we don’t believe clients have lost interest in emerging tech. Rather, they have become more aware of the realities and are looking for specific use cases with guaranteed returns before they invest heavily.

As with any relatively new consulting market, it’s a case of listening carefully to what clients want and timing your investment to coincide with demand. The best placed firms will be those that keep talking to clients about their needs and that take the time to build trust, capability, and capacity for when this market inevitably takes off.