The professional services industry is in the midst of a shake-up, one that’s calling firm leaders to hit reset on how they plan, operate, and grow. And those in the know are already moving.
After years of navigating the war for talent, slow technology adoption, and stop-start market conditions—a new wave of pressure is forcing a change in direction. The signs of change aren't hard to miss: cost-cutting measures, layoffs across the Big Four, hiring slowdowns, restructures, and a surge in industry consolidation.
Let’s explore a few of the headline shifts making waves across the industry.
Changing talent tides
The war for talent has dominated industry headlines for much of the past five years in professional services. It reflects the industry's challenges in attracting and retaining top talent, with firms aggressively hiring to meet demand and counter high attrition. But that dynamic is shifting. Layoffs in the thousands at PwC, EY, and KPMG point to a pivot toward operational efficiency. At the same time, reports of low voluntary turnover suggest many professionals are choosing stability—staying put longer than firms may have anticipated.
These headlines are raising important questions:
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Are firms course-correcting after pandemic-era overhiring, or adjusting for where previous demand planning may have missed the mark?
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Are economic pressures, M&A disruption, or the structural changes brought on by private equity investment causing people to stay longer than expected?
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Or is AI simply reducing the need for large teams to handle high volumes of manual or administrative work?
It’s likely a mix of all these forces—different pressures pulling in the same direction. And that direction is a shift from chasing headcount to maximizing capacity, with a focus on retaining the right people and making every role count.
This marks a broader transition from the "war for talent" to the "war on capacity" where optimizing resources, improving workforce planning, and deploying people strategically is key. Firms need to do this not only to meet today’s demand but to compete with the firms of the future as competition rises.
The headline: The war for talent is giving way to a war on capacity—and firms need the resourcing hindsight, insight, and foresight to plan and hire ahead of the curve, consistently and with confidence.
The private equity effect
Private equity (PE) investment continues to create ripple effects across the professional services market, accelerating change—especially among mid-sized and large firms. While early fears centred on aggressive cost-cutting, many industry observers now view PE influence as a driver of operational optimization.
There’s a growing perspective that PE involvement brings a longer-term lens—prompting more strategic investment in areas like workforce planning, data infrastructure, and technology. As Matt Cockett, CEO of Dayshape, explains:
“Private equity brings a level of clarity and ambition that sharpens focus. Investors want to know what you have, where you're going, and how you’ll get there. That lens pushes firms to take a much more strategic view—of people, planning, and performance.
It forces firms to scrutinize their operations, including how they invest in software and tech, and how well they understand their own business.”
By shining a light on how firms operate, highlighting inefficiencies and re-evaluating historically underinvested areas, PE investment is pushing firms to answer questions, such as:
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Where is the industry heading?
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What long-term trends should we be positioning for?
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Where do we need to invest today to grow faster and more sustainably than the competition?
This mindset allows for investment in initiatives that may not yield immediate returns—such as building out modern tech stacks or adopting more advanced planning tools—but that strengthen future performance and resilience. It’s a shift that prioritizes long-term growth.
Industry voices suggest this shift won’t just drive better performance—it could also help re-energize the industry. Some predict that PE-backed firms will become increasingly attractive to younger professionals who are eager for change, growth, and innovation. They argue that the shake-up could breathe new life into firms and create compelling reasons for talent to stay and grow within the profession.
The headline: Private equity is fueling a shift towards a long-term investment mindset—putting operational optimization and strategic tech investment where they belong: at the top of the agenda.
The AI chasm
The AI divide is widening, and industry experts caution that it will soon draw a clear line between the leaders and the laggards. While a growing number of firms are exploring what's out there, assessing practical use cases, and securing investment, others are already seeing the benefits.
The market leaders are already applying AI to streamline administrative work, strengthen forecasting, and enhance planning accuracy—gains that only gain with time. This divide is becoming increasingly visible in areas like manual resource planning, project allocation, and capacity forecasting. And there’s a growing belief that slower-adopting firms will soon see this divide surface in more tangible ways—like lost revenue, shrinking margins, and missed opportunities.
There’s also increasing acceptance that AI adoption isn’t just about productivity, it’s about people. Industry leaders suggest that firms should use AI intentionally to protect and propel the careers of their top talent:
- Protect: Using AI-powered technology to monitor workloads and actively prevent burnout.
- Propel: Ensure people are staffed on projects that support their growth to offer more attractive, competitive career paths.
Achieve both, and a firm is not only more likely to retain the talent it needs, but also to deploy that talent in ways that deliver stronger client outcomes.
The impact on junior professionals may be even more profound. While headlines have speculated about an "AI intern" replacing entry-level roles, experts suggest the opposite. Rather than replacing junior accountants, AI will reshape their work by taking on foundational tasks like data entry and reconciliations. This means junior staff could move up the experience curve faster, spending more time on value-adding work earlier in their careers.
Some predict that, with the right investment in AI, this generation of junior professionals could gain more career-building experience in their first five years than any generation before them. That’s good news not just for talent retention, but for the long-term vitality of the profession.
And AI won’t just automate admin—it’s already assisting in judgment-based workflows, flagging anomalies, and suggesting next steps with speed and accuracy, across high volumes of work. What was once seen as a near-term possibility is here and now. So the real differentiator will be between those who treat AI as a task for tomorrow vs. a priority for today.
The headline: The AI divide is widening fast, and firms that delay proactive AI education and investment risk falling behind—on performance, retention, and in ways we can't yet predict.
The firm of the future
