Kantata Research: 87% of Professional Services Teams Plan to Integrate AI Agents into Workforce Management
Kantata released the "2025 State of Professional Services Report," which shows that 87% of professional services organizations plan to integrate AI agents into their workforce, and 89% of leaders believe future revenue growth will rely more on AI scaling than on personnel expansion. The report also highlights resource constraints, skills shortages, and declining data trust as core industry challenges.
Irvine, California and London, January 8, 2026 — According to the annual State of Professional Services Industry Report sponsored by Kantata, a provider of professional services automation (PSA) solutions, 87% of professional services organizations plan to use AI agents as part of their workforce. At the same time, nearly nine in ten (89%) professional services leaders believe that future revenue growth will depend more on their ability to scale AI adoption than on expanding headcount, reflecting a fundamental shift in how companies approach growth.
Resource Management: From Human Scaling to Human-AI Collaboration
For professional services firms, resource management has evolved into a complex challenge that encompasses both human capacity and AI capabilities. More than 66% of professional services organizations report having turned down business due to resource constraints. Meanwhile, the proportion of leaders citing skills availability as a barrier has climbed to 68%, up from 45% in the previous fiscal year, indicating that talent shortages are worsening rather than improving.
As companies turn to AI agents to fill these gaps, the execution layer has become a primary constraint: managing and integrating AI agents into delivery processes has been ranked as the top resource and project management challenge facing professional services teams. To address this shift, 90% of leaders say their systems will need to attribute work, costs, and value to both human employees and AI agents in the near future, exposing the limitations of traditional labor and financial models.
"The State of Professional Services Industry Report reveals an industry at an inflection point," said Micheal Speranza, CEO of Kantata. "The conditions that have defined success in professional services for decades no longer apply. Artificial intelligence is no longer knocking on the door of service delivery—it has entered and is rearranging the furniture. It is reshaping how work gets done, how value is created, and how companies compete."
Early AI Adoption Shows Results, While Commercial Pressures Rise
AI has begun to deliver tangible impact. Among organizations using AI to optimize key processes, the survey results show measurable performance improvements:
- 54% of respondents reported improved project execution efficiency
- 53% of respondents reported improved proposal quality and win rates
- 52% of respondents reported improved forecasting accuracy or resource utilization
These gains are becoming increasingly critical as commercial pressures intensify. Client expectations continue to rise across multiple dimensions: 72% of respondents noted higher demands for work quality, 51% cited increased speed of delivery requirements, and 47% reflected growing expectations for transparency. Meanwhile, profitability remains under pressure: 70% of respondents listed margin pressure as a top concern, higher than the focus on revenue growth (62%). Despite advances in tools and analytics, execution gaps persist—more than half (54%) of companies report that at least 10% of their projects fail to meet budget targets.
Declining Data Trust: The Burden of Verifying AI Outputs Comes to the Fore
As reliance on AI deepens, trust in the data underpinning service delivery is declining. Currently, only 12% of professional services leaders say they fully trust the data in their systems, down from 24% last year. Respondents cited limited transparency of AI outputs, data silos, and duplication issues as primary reasons. Notably, although 88% of respondents say they trust AI outputs and are willing to use them for operational decisions, nearly the same proportion (89%) admit they spend significant time verifying these outputs.
"This moment is about more than just technology—it is about leadership," Speranza added. "Every services firm can see the same forces at play. The difference will depend on the choices leaders make now: whether to use AI to optimize at the margins or to fundamentally elevate the standards by which their companies deliver value, demonstrate expertise, and compete."
Survey Methodology and Report Access
The findings are based on a survey commissioned by Kantata and conducted by Censuswide, which surveyed 200 professional services leaders to gain deeper insights into the current state of the industry and trends for the coming year.
For more insights and the full survey data, the complete Kantata State of Professional Services Industry Report can be downloaded:https://www.kantata.com/resource/2025-state-of-professional-services
Media Contact: Lisa Hendrickson / LCH Communications (on behalf of Kantata), Phone: 516-643-1642, Email: [email protected]
About Kantata
Kantata takes professional services automation to a new level, providing people-centric businesses with the clarity, control, and confidence needed to optimize resource planning and enhance operational performance. Its purpose-built cloud software has helped more than 1,500 professional services organizations across over 100 countries worldwide focus on and optimize their most important asset—their people. With Kantata, professional services firms gain the information and tools they need to win more business, ensure the right people are in the right place at the right time, and delight clients through project delivery and outcomes. For more information, visit www.kantata.com。
