The potential of AI in professional services is expanding faster than ever. As a leader, you’re likely pressured to embrace AI to improve operational efficiency, optimize delivery, and meet rising customer expectations. But where should you start, and what’s realistic right now?

AI promises to transform your business, but securing those promises requires a clear strategy. You need to know which AI use cases are delivering results now so you can confidently move forward and avoid falling behind.

That’s what this Research Journey is all about. We’ll explore how professional services organizations like yours use AI tools and technology, and what they plan for the near future. You’ll get insights to measure your AI adoption progress, identify realistic short-term goals, and set actionable next steps—so your organization stays ahead of the curve.

Ready to discover what’s possible for you today and prepare for the opportunities ahead? Let’s get started.

Jump in with us as we:

• Define the Problem: We can start tackling the business challenge by clearly identifying it.
• Launch Discovery: This is where we investigate the facts and contributing factors through polls, surveys, and interviews.
• Develop the Theory: Our researchers and analysts can develop and enhance frameworks with data in hand.
• Guide the Industry: Correlations to results lead to conclusions that will help your organization transition to AI-powered professional services.

By following this journey, you can stay updated on each step, participate in finding solutions, and view our results as we work toward what it takes to educate your professional services organization on the progress of AI within the industry.

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Defining the Problem: Avoiding Common AI Pitfalls in Professional Services

If you’re a professional services leader, you’ve likely been asked to “do something with AI”—often without a clear budget, strategy, or plan to guide the way. Sound familiar? Without those essential components, you might rely on existing resources and processes to get things moving. That could mean pulling team members from their day-to-day work to help launch AI initiatives—only to face many challenges.

Without a clear roadmap, it’s hard to know the answers to some essential questions, such as:

• What data should you feed into your AI tools, and how much?
• Who’s in charge of governing AI efforts across the business?
• Do you even have the processing capabilities to make AI work effectively?

Without a clear plan, AI adoption often feels unstable, and the full potential of AI remains just out of reach.

This Research Journey is created with you in mind. While professional services leaders find it most relevant, executives, operations teams, and department managers will also gain valuable insights into how AI adoption can drive measurable business results.

Understanding AI's challenges and opportunities can help you build a stronger foundation for success without scrambling or guessing.

Why Does It Need Solving?

AI adoption is accelerating faster than any other technology in the last decade. If you’re not already exploring AI tools, you risk falling behind while competitors find new ways to maximize AI’s value. But why is this so urgent, and what’s at stake if you don’t act?

Here’s what could happen if you delay solving the AI challenge:

• Declining revenue and shrinking margins
• A reputation as a slow innovator in the market
• Unmet customer expectations
• Loss of control over your company and customer IP

For many professional services organizations, an ongoing struggle with data compounds these risks. Inconsistent processes mean quality data often goes uncollected, leaving gaps in historical insights needed for AI-driven pattern analysis and machine learning. Without a solid foundation, AI adoption can feel slow, chaotic, or even impossible.

This Research Journey is designed to help you address these challenges head-on. You’ll get a clear view of how professional services organizations navigate AI transformation, the most common pitfalls to avoid, and practical steps to overcome the barriers standing in your way.

By understanding AI's real risks and opportunities, you can move forward confidently and set your organization up for success in the AI era.

Unveiling the Research Methodology: Tackling the Challenge

As we embark on this journey to identify AI's current and future state within professional services organizations, you need to understand how we’ll tackle the research and what you can gain by joining us. We are committed to providing ‌comprehensive analyses and actionable insights that can transform how you approach AI adoption in your organization.

This Research Journey is meticulously designed to be both thorough and engaging, ensuring that you are not just a participant, but also a collaborator:

• Polls: We will start with a brief poll designed to capture immediate insights into where the professional services industry currently stands with AI tools and technology. Insights from this poll will be summarized in an interactive webinar, and all of the learnings from this journey will be synthesized into a framework, a culminating research report with lessons learned, and a summary of the results at TSIA’s next conference.
• Detailed survey: After the polls, we’ll conduct a comprehensive survey of 20 questions. This survey will gather nuanced data to better understand various organizations’ challenges and strategies.
• Continual engagement: Throughout this journey, we will share findings through published insights, webinars, and interviews, culminating in the launch of our ‌conference. Expect three to six research papers providing rich, detailed insights into the state of professional services today.

What You’ll Gain From Participating in This Research Journey

By participating in this journey, you will better understand where professional services organizations stand today with AI and what AI tools are currently being leveraged. Throughout the process, we will explore the following questions:

• Where does the professional services industry stand today, and where will it likely be in six months?
• What are AI's more successful and realistic use cases in professional services today?
• What progress is the technology industry making in defining its data architecture, systems, flow, information, and governance around that information?

Your Key Takeaways

By the end of this Research Journey, you will have gained practical insights into the specific tools being leveraged by professional services organizations now, and the tools that will become commonplace in the near future. More specifically, you’ll walk away with:

• Thematic insights: Discover critical themes and insights shaping professional services today. You will understand what is working, what isn’t, and where the industry is headed.
• Proactive guidance: Receive reactive and proactive advice on what you can do now with AI, what to expect in the near future, and how to prepare.‍
• Strategic empowerment: The main goal of this journey is to provide realistic yet impactful goals regarding AI for your professional services organization. You will learn how AI fits into your organization, what AI tools are currently available, and best practices for implementing, adopting, and scaling AI.