Professional services: consulting, audit, law and IT services

Lesson 3 of 3 Math checked Facts checked against sources on 30 September 2026 13 min

Professional services players, trends 2024 to 2026, and how to crack the cases

Who the players are by region, their size, what changed from 2024 to 2026 (AI, Indian IT services, the Gulf), typical prompts, traps and drills.

Industry brief, with a one-minute summary: Professional services and consulting

Firm processes and online tests change from year to year and differ by office. Use this to prepare, and confirm the exact current steps on the firm's own careers page.

Key takeaways

Professional services cases usually ask how a firm can grow, why its profit is falling, whether to enter a new market or service, or how to price.
Common traps: Growing revenue by adding people without checking whether they will be billed.
Slower growth, busy benches: Deloitte grew 3.8 percent in local currency in its year to May 2026 (to USD 74.5 billion), with its technology and transformation business growing only 2.5 percent.
AI is changing the pyramid: tools now draft research, analysis and slides that juniors used to do, so firms are asking how many graduates they need.

Key idea

Professional services cases usually ask how a firm can grow, why its profit is falling, whether to enter a new market or service, or how to price. The answer nearly always comes back to hours billed, price per hour (or per outcome), and the mix of senior and junior people doing the work.

Examples of professional services players by region (examples only, not a ranking)

Examples of professional services players by region (examples only, not a ranking)
Region	Consulting	Audit, tax and law	IT services
Global	McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Oliver Wyman, Kearney, Accenture	Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG; BDO, Grant Thornton, RSM, Forvis Mazars	Accenture, IBM Consulting, Capgemini, Cognizant
Europe	Roland Berger, Capgemini Invent, strategy arms of the Big Four	Big Four; law firms such as Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Linklaters, Slaughter and May	Capgemini, Sopra Steria, Atos
Middle East	Global firms with large offices in Riyadh, Dubai and Abu Dhabi; local firms such as Strategic Gears (Saudi Arabia)	Big Four and international law firms with Gulf offices	Elm (Saudi Arabia), Indian and global IT services firms
India	Global consulting firms' India offices and the Big Four in India	Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, AZB and Partners, Khaitan and Co	TCS, Infosys, HCLTech, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, LTM (formerly LTIMindtree)
Southeast Asia	Global firms' Singapore, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur offices	Big Four member firms and regional law firms	NCS (Singapore), FPT (Vietnam)
United States	McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Booz Allen Hamilton (government)	Big Four; law firms such as Kirkland and Ellis, Latham and Watkins	Accenture, Cognizant, IBM

So-what

Strategy firms are few and small next to the Big Four and IT services firms, which employ hundreds of thousands of people each.

Size of some large firms, latest full year (USD billion; years end in different months, so compare with care)(USD billion)

So-what

The Big Four figures add up member firms around the world that are legally separate, while Accenture and TCS are single listed companies. Growth for most was in single digits.

Trends 2024 to 2026 (checked 30 September 2026)

Slower growth, busy benches: Deloitte grew 3.8 percent in local currency in its year to May 2026 (to USD 74.5 billion), with its technology and transformation business growing only 2.5 percent. The SPI Research benchmark of 509 firms found billable utilization of 66.4 percent in 2025, the lowest in its 19 years, against a common target of 75 percent.
AI is now a large line of business: Accenture reported USD 5.9 billion of new generative AI bookings in its year to August 2025, and TCS said its annualised AI revenue (the latest quarter times four) passed USD 2.3 billion in early 2026. Nasscom estimates USD 10 to 12 billion of AI revenue for the Indian technology industry in the year to March 2026.
AI is changing the pyramid: tools now draft research, analysis and slides that juniors used to do, so firms are asking how many graduates they need. In 2025 all four Big Four firms were reported to have hired fewer UK graduates in 2024 than in 2023, by about 6 to 29 percent. Firms are moving more work to fixed, value based and outcome pricing, where doing the work in fewer hours raises profit instead of cutting revenue.
Indian IT services: Nasscom estimates that India's technology industry passed USD 300 billion for the first time, at about USD 315 billion in the year to March 2026 (up about 6 percent), with about 6 million direct employees. TCS's revenue was about USD 30 billion, flat in dollars and down about 2 percent in constant currency, while its headcount fell by about 23,000; its operating margin, excluding one-off items, was 25 percent. Global companies are also building their own centres in India (global capability centres), which compete for the same talent.
Gulf demand: Source Global Research expected the Gulf consulting market to grow about 12 percent in 2025 to over USD 8.3 billion, with Saudi Arabia the largest (about USD 4.3 billion in 2024). From 2025, Saudi clients tightened budgets: reports in 2026 describe lower rates, fee caps, more payment tied to results, and a shift from strategy toward delivery. Source Global Research expected Saudi consulting to grow about 13 percent in 2026 when it spoke in February, then cut that to about 9 to 10 percent in July, so growth is slowing to single digits.
Law: US law firms tracked by the Thomson Reuters Institute reported profit growth of 12.9 percent in an August 2026 analysis, the strongest since 2021, while pushing more work to associates and non-equity partners.

Typical case prompts and how to crack them

Professional services case prompts, the structure to use, and the first driver to check

Professional services case prompts, the structure to use, and the first driver to check
Prompt	Structure hint	First driver to check
A consulting firm's profit fell 20 percent while revenue held. Why?	Profit per person: utilization, rate, realization, staff mix, pay	Utilization by level, and realization after discounts
Should an Indian IT services firm move from billing per person to outcome pricing?	Revenue model: risk, delivery cost with AI, client appetite, contract terms	Hours saved by automation, and who keeps the saving
Should a European strategy firm open an office in Riyadh?	Market entry: demand, prices, local rules and partners, talent, risk	Size and growth of paid demand, and fees after caps
A Big Four firm wants to grow its audit business in Southeast Asia.	Growth: win new audits (tenders, rotation), raise fees, add related services	Audit rotations coming up and independence limits
A law firm's partners want higher profit per partner.	Profit per partner: rates, realization, hours, staff to partner ratio, partner count	Realization and the number of equity partners

So-what

Start from the per person formula: hours, rate, realization and cost. Then ask what is changing it: AI, clients, rules or the mix of people.

Common traps

Growing revenue by adding people without checking whether they will be billed. Quoting the standard rate as if it were the price collected (realization is often well below 100 percent). Ignoring that pay is fixed in the short run, so lost hours drop straight to profit. Treating AI only as a cost saving: under time and materials it also cuts revenue. Forgetting independence rules when a Big Four firm wants to sell consulting to an audit client. Ranking firms by prestige instead of by the numbers in the case.

Related case-type modules

Profitability; Pricing; Market entry; Growth strategy; Operations and process improvement.

Timed math drill

An IT services contract uses 25 percent of its hours onsite at USD 100 an hour and 75 percent offshore in India at USD 30 an hour. What is the blended rate per hour, in USD?

Timed math drill

Accenture reported revenue of about USD 69,670 million for its year to August 2025, with about 779,000 people. What was its revenue per person, in USD thousand? (Round to two decimals.)

Check your understanding

A consulting firm's revenue is flat but profit fell sharply. Which is the strongest first thing to check?

Check your understanding

Why does AI push firms away from charging by the hour?

Terms in this lesson

Capacity utilization Market share Value-based pricing Switching costs Economies of scale Backlog (order book)Churn and retention

Sources for this lesson (16)

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