Fiona Czerniawska, Founder and CEO at Source, set the scene for the discussion with her insight on today’s market. Up against persistent economic turmoil, clients’ budgets are tight. “One of the factors that drives growth in the market is the extent to which clients themselves can invest, and the situation is that they don’t have a lot of money,” she said. “Over 85% of clients say their ability to invest has been seriously impaired.”

However, business leaders aren’t slamming their doors on investment. Source’s research indicates that around 58% of clients globally expect their use of consulting to increase in the next 12 months. “The areas where clients say that they’re most likely to spend on external help are those that have anything to do with technology. That’s things like cybersecurity, but also more basic areas like infrastructure and technology,” Fiona said.

With this volatile but tech-hungry backdrop in mind, we share five ways that firms can position themselves and their clients to harness the power of AI:

1. Pick up the pace on strategy

How we should think about strategy. For one thing, the pace has accelerated, and both firms and their clients need to respond.

Rachel Barton, Head of Strategy for EMEA at Accenture, attributed this shift to volatility in the macro environment and also to where clients are on their growth journeys. “Strategy is no longer about the why, the where, and the when, because the when is now,” she said. “Therefore, strategy is about where to play and how to win.”

Tech, and by extension AI, is another part of the story here: A strong understanding of the possibilities that technology offers will help organisations create better strategies. However, tech is also another driver of the need for speed. “Strategy now has to move at the pace of technology, not only in its development, but also in its execution.” Rachel said.

2. Showcase AI in your own business model

Inevitably, one of the first questions that clients ask firms when the topic of AI comes up is: “What are you doing in this space?” Dr. Gianluca Barletta, Partner & Global Head of Data Science at PA Consulting, embraces this. “As consultants, we should explain to our clients how we are using AI. It’s not just a matter of transparency; it’s also about education, because we’re telling clients how they can use AI moving forward. We are showcasing the use case for AI in what we do,” he said.

Leaders today are reviewing their businesses and considering where AI may automate certain tasks, where it may augment them, and also what processes and services may disappear. They should also be looking carefully at how people and tech will interact. As Gianluca puts it “What excites me most is the concept of a ‘consultant 2.0’; the concept of an augmented with the machine and knows how to leverage the best from AI.”

He shared how PA Consulting is teaching its people to prompt engineer. “It’s about how to ask the right questions, so that the generative AI is going to help you get the answer you’re actually looking for,” Gianluca said.

While media attention may focus on what jobs are set to disappear, Gianluca suggests looking at the issue from another angle, too: “Can we also think about what new jobs are going to exist because of AI? What will the new consultant, the new coder, the new software engineer, and the AI engineer look like? What will the new professional figures coming out be?”

“We have to be very careful. The basics have to be in place to be able to get the value from AI. That is the data, processing, structures, and architecture. None of the hype says that.”

James Byles, Deloitte

3. Get strong foundations in place

With AI never out of the headlines, Rachel Barton acknowledged that it can be difficult to separate “relevance” from “noise” when it comes to looking at how to use it in an organisation. “You have to go back to some real basics around the value pools that you can differentiate yourself within. How are you going to win in those value pools?” she said.

James Byles, Partner (UK AI Service Delivery Transformation Leader) at Deloitte, also urged caution. “We have to be very careful. The basics have to be in place to be able to get the value from AI. That is the data, processing, structures, and architecture. None of the hype says that.”

Gianluca Barletta agreed: “The reality is, you can have the best algorithm in the world, but if the data that you feed into it is wrong, or inconsistent, or poorly governed, what you are going to get out will be equally bad. You need to make sure that your data is in the right shape, there is a well defined taxonomy, there is data management and good governance, and that people understand their role as data custodians.”

In other words, while the technology is important, how AI will be used is set to be crucial. “We are at a time when storage capacity is cheap, computational power is almost unlimited, and things are connected and reliably connected,” James said. “So, I believe there’s something in it, particularly around creating great human co-pilots, but it’s about defining realistic goals for its use, sticking to your knitting, and not forgetting that interpretation of the results is still the critical human role.”

4. Build best-in-class ecosystems

In today’s market, no one firm can be an expert in everything, and building relationships that extend beyond traditional boundaries is crucial. In Source’s latest research, we asked clients about their buying decisions, and 61% said that they consider a firm’s ecosystem when deciding which firm to hire. What’s more, 69% say that a firm’s ecosystem made them more likely to hire that specific firm.

There was wide agreement that partnerships of all types will only increase in importance. However, Zoe Tomkins, KPMG Partner, Alliances, urged firms to tread carefully. “Often, organisations can be a little casual in their approach to ecosystems, seeing them as a pick and mix, and I think that can be quite dangerous,” she said.

Why should firms be concerned? Third-party providers could have an impact on firms’ relationships with clients. “A client relationship is often a one-to-one relationship, whereas the ecosystem is one to many, which means interactions potentially have a much higher ripple effect, both positive and negative,” Zoe said. “Reputation is everything, so we need to consider the potential impact of our touchpoints across our ecosystems.”

5. Dream big

While it’s important to be realistic about what technology can offer, and what your firm’s capabilities are, this is an opportunity for leaders in professional services to think big.

Rachel Barton set out the challenge: “Finding a way to invest in the future, has to be about using technology to create strategies that are beyond the possibilities of what one previously imagined.”

“It’s about executing those strategies with technology to create the investment capacity to then drive productivity and efficiency. You also need to understand how to invest that in growth by having real clarity around where you can be differentiated and win.”

True, that isn’t an easy ask, and Rachel feels that very few organisations are currently able to get that pivot right. Nevertheless, AI is an opportunity that firms must lean into if they want to meet their clients’ expectations.

Source’s latest research shows that around 90% of clients think that AI will dramatically change the professional services sector. And while firms are responding and making big investments in AI, Fiona Czerniawska closed by emphasising how important it will be to keep humans at the centre of those plans.

Ultimately, clients are looking for firms that can provide a seamless combination of leading technology and the best people. “We have never met a client who thinks that their strategy can be done by robots. We have never met a client who thinks that you can change an organisation using tools alone: The tools are enablers,” Fiona said.

“Finding a way to invest in the future, has to be about using technology to create strategies that are beyond the possibilities of what one previously imagined.”

Rachel Barton, Accenture