Consulting Firms Are Buying Software, Data and AI Capabilities. Selling Human Hours Alone Is No Longer Enough

Forrester published an analysis of acquisitions by large technology and consulting service providers. It examined 97 deals completed by 24 major firms during 2025 and the elapsed part of 2026. Two clear directions emerge: buying capabilities needed for AI transformation and buying companies that own software or other reusable technology assets. The first direction includes companies focused on AI development, data work, employee training, security and risk management. Providers are responding to the fact that an enterprise customer does not need only a model or a programmer. It must simultaneously change data, processes, skills and control mechanisms. A company that lacks these capabilities can build them internally or acquire them. The second direction is more economically fundamental. Large consulting and technology companies want to grow without increasing hiring at the same pace. They are therefore buying software, intellectual property and other assets that can be sold repeatedly to many clients. Forrester describes the resulting model as a combination of services and products. A provider no longer sells only a team for a fixed number of months, but also its own solution for implementation and subsequent operations. AI accelerates this shift because it reduces the value of some activities billed by time. If a team can produce the same output in half the hours through automation, the customer will not be willing in the long run to pay for the original number of person-days. The supplier can preserve the economics of the engagement only if it begins to price the outcome, its own technology, data, operations or assumed risk. For customers' procurement departments, this creates a new problem in comparing offers. The daily rate of a consultant will say less and less about the true cost. An offer may include a proprietary platform, model consumption, licenses, data and ongoing operations. The company therefore needs to assess total cost and the conditions for switching to another provider in the future. Forrester uses the analogy that a customer who wants a field ploughed must be prepared to pay for the tractor, not only for the farmer. The point is not simply that the service becomes more expensive, but that the unit of value changes. An automated platform may eliminate hundreds of hours of work, but the supplier will want to capture part of the value created through the price of its asset. For the consulting market, this means pressure on mid-sized players based primarily on renting out specialists. The largest companies can use capital to acquire platforms, while small specialist firms can sell rare expertise. The most difficult position is faced by providers whose main advantage was the number of people available for routine technology work. Terms to explain Asset-based business model: A model in which a company sells its own software, data, platform or intellectual property in addition to people's labor. Recurring revenue: Income that renews regularly, for example through subscriptions or operating fees. Person-day: The amount of work performed by one specialist during one working day.

Consulting Firms Are Buying Software, Data and AI Capabilities. Selling Human Hours Alone Is No Longer Enough

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