White Paper

Digital Transformation
Initiative
Professional Services
Industry
In collaboration with Accenture
January 2017
World Economic Forum
91-93 route de la Capite
CH-1223 Cologny/Geneva
Switzerland
Tel.: +41 (0)22 869 1212
Fax: +41 (0)22 786 2744
Email: [email protected]
www.weforum.org

World Economic Forum®

© 2017 – All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or

Transmitted in any form or by any means, including The Digital Transformation Initiative
Photocopying and recording, or by any information
Storage and retrieval system.
The Digital Transformation Initiative (DTI) is a project launched by the World
The views expressed in this White Paper are those Economic Forum in 2015 as part of the System Initiative on Shaping the Future
of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the
views of the World Economic Forum or its Members
of Digital Economy and Society. It is an ongoing initiative that serves as the
and Partners. White Papers are submitted to the World focal point at the Forum for new opportunities and themes arising from latest
Economic Forum as contributions to its insight areas developments in the digitalization of business and society. It supports the
and interactions, and the Forum makes the final decision
on the publication of the White Paper. White Papers Forum’s broader activity around the theme of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
describe research in progress by the author(s) and are
published to elicit comments and further debate.
To find out more about the DTI project, visit
REF 060117 http://reports.weforum.org/digital-transformation
Contents Foreword

3 Foreword Digital transformation is emerging as a key driver of sweeping change around the world.
It has the potential to significantly improve consumers’ lives and create broader societal
4 Executive Summary good, while providing businesses with new opportunities to capture competitive
6 Industry Context and Technology advantage and create value. The transformational power of digital is also fuelling the
Trends Fourth Industrial Revolution, changing how people live, work and relate to one another. In
contrast to its predecessors, the current industrial revolution is universal, affecting every
6 Professional Services today sector of the economy, including knowledge professionals.
6 Digitalization in Professional
Services The Digital Transformation Initiative (DTI) was launched by the World Economic Forum in
2015 to serve as the focal point for new opportunities and themes arising from the latest
10 The changing economics of developments in the digitalization of business and society. The project supports the
Professional Services broader activity of the Forum around the theme of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
11 Future Horizons
The DTI has analysed the impact of digital transformation on six key industries –
11 Business model transformation automotive, consumer goods, electricity, healthcare, logistics and media – and on three
cross-industry topics: digital consumption, digital enterprise and societal implications. In
13 Intelligent automation
2016, the initiative was extended to cover seven additional industries, including
14 Digital agility Professional Services, and two new cross-industry themes: the platform economy, and
societal value and policy imperatives. Through its broad focus, the initiative has driven
16 Talent empowerment engagement on some of the most pressing topics facing industries and businesses
18 Inhibitors and Key Questions today, and provided business and policy leaders with an informed perspective on how to
take action.
19 Imperatives for Industry and
Societal Implications Digitalization is also affecting the Professional Services industry both internally and
22 Glossary of Digital Technologies externally. How digital disrupts other industries will impact the clients of Professional
Services firms, who, in turn, will have to adapt their offerings accordingly. Transforming
25 Appendix business models to better meet client expectations, pre-empting disruptive competition,
27 Acknowledgements and creating the right ecosystem of partners will become a source of competitive
advantage.
28 Contributors
Professional Services companies have an unprecedented opportunity to harness the
29 Endnotes
power of artificial intelligence to augment people’s ability to “do”, “think”, “learn” and
“feel”. By automating routine tasks, technology is freeing people to focus on solving
higher-order problems. Technology makes it more important than ever for companies to
be agile – and makes it easier for them to achieve that agility. The rise in machine learning
and the dominance of non-asset intensive platforms, with access to people, reach and
value, will provide organizations with the tools to be ever more responsive. Companies
that can anticipate change and react faster than competitors will stay ahead of the curve.

Clearly, digitalization will be a source of transformational change for Professional

Services, but are we comfortable leaving machines to make ethical and moral decisions?
How can the industry and government address a rising skills gap? How can we navigate
the impact of automation and digital transformation on skills and people? How can we
ensure that the benefits of digitalization are equitably shared?

This White Paper was prepared in collaboration with Accenture, whom we thank for their
support. We also thank the members of the World Economic Forum’s Professional
Services Industry community and the more than 40 experts from industry partners,
government and academia who were involved in shaping this project’s insights and
recommendations.

We are confident that if the recommended actions are implemented, we can contribute to
improving the lives of people and the success of business through digital transformation.
Upskilling people to be ready for changes that cannot always be predicted will be a
defining challenge of our time.

Jonas Prising Bruce Weinelt

Chairman and Chief Executive Head of Digital Transformation
Officer, ManpowerGroup World Economic Forum

Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry 3

Executive Summary
Professional Services appears to be approaching a tipping point, as disruptive technologies drive
fundamental changes in the industry’s economics.

Professional Services boasts a rich history and a burgeoning Digital innovation is contributing to a fundamental shift in the
reputation as a growth industry and major source of industry’s dynamics of supply and demand. On the demand
employment, in both developed and emerging markets. It side, ubiquitous data and pervasive technology are making
plays a critical role in helping its clients set their strategic professions more transparent, giving clients a greater
direction, remain compliant, predict future risks, recruit understanding of the sector and raising their expectations of
talent, and produce and audit their financial results. receiving high-quality, professional expertise at an affordable
The ability of its practitioners to adapt to changing demand price point. On the supply side, crowdsourcing, rapid
has been important in driving growth in the Professional advances in machine learning and robotic process
Services industry. This agility is in action and noticeable automation, and the modularization of work are helping to
today, as digital disrupts other industries. create a new source of supply in Professional Services.
Digital platforms offer a convenient alternative to the
Disruption ahead? traditional physical marketplace for services, as clients and
customers can now seek professional help online.
Professional Services may be proficient at evolving its
offerings to clients’ changing needs, but perspectives differ Digital themes
on whether digital disruption has significantly transformed
the industry. One school of thought sees Professional The Professional Services industry should view digitalization
Services in the vanguard of digital transformation, with high as an ally as it strives to provide quality expertise at scale to
levels of digitalization across most aspects of the sector. An businesses and individuals, and further improve its
alternative view holds that, despite Professional Services’ operational efficiency. Four key themes are emerging:
outward agility, it has not yet been disrupted to the same
extent as other industries. Business model transformation.
Digitalization empowers firms to change every
For this White Paper, the assessment of digital disruption in facet of how they go to market: their services,
Professional Services is nuanced. Though there has not yet value propositions, target customers and price
been a seismic disruption to shake the entire industry, the points. Firms are repositioning themselves with
shifts under the surface are stronger than many people new services for the digital world and fostering a system of
realize. This suggests that the industry may be approaching partners across the industry value chain and beyond.
a tipping point.
Intelligent automation. People have
For a deeper understanding of digitalization in Professional traditionally provided expertise, the primary
Services, a panel of industry executives worked to assess offering of the Professional Services industry.
disruption at a granular level by focusing on its impact in However, emerging technologies such as
three areas: business model, operating model and analytics, AI and deep learning are augmenting
competitive leader board. It was agreed that the industry’s professionals’ ability to “do”, “think”, “learn” and “feel”. This
business model is being disrupted the most, and the leader can enhance the quality and volume of expertise, and lower
board the least. Opinions differed about the extent of change the cost to serve.
to the sector’s operating model, perhaps because of the
varying degree of disruption across segments within Digital agility. Companies that can anticipate
Professional Services (with Accounting and Audit the most change, react faster than competitors, and
affected, and Big Law the least). adapt their strategies and processes in light of
disruptive events are able to stay ahead of the
Digital innovation and shifting economics curve. Firms are becoming more responsive by
adopting a flexible workforce, promoting an agile culture and
Artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, machine learning and investing in smart digital infrastructure to encourage
platforms are among the most important technologies productivity and creativity.
disrupting the industry. AI supports professionals to learn,
think and perform better; analytics and machine learning are Talent empowerment. Reimagining the
revolutionizing insight generation; and platforms are employee experience to offer the right value
disrupting traditional business models by bringing buyers proposition will be imperative for firms in the
and suppliers together. digital world. They will need to leverage new
technologies or models to source talent, and
maintain high engagement levels by ensuring that talent is
appropriately trained and dynamically managed.
4 Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry
Key questions

Advances in digital technology and economic shifts could

revolutionize the industry, but inhibitors to change still exist.
These barriers raise important questions for professionals
looking to make digital transformation a reality:

– Are professionals ready to adopt technologies that may

disrupt their own markets in the short term?
– Are managers at all levels of an organization ready to
trust machines with their work?
– Are professionals using short- and long-term
performance measures to encourage risk-taking and
innovation?

Inspiring leadership for digital transformation

Strong sponsorship at the level of the board and the chief

executive officer is vital if a company is to truly embrace
opportunities presented by digital disruption. A digital culture
is increasingly important for business growth; responsibility
for nurturing that culture starts with leadership.
To help executives become effective digital leaders, a set of
potential actions have been developed. These
recommendations include for executives to:

– Challenge what they do today, and be bold in exploring

options for dramatically changing what they do (business
model) and how they do it (operating model).
– Review their priorities for automation and machine
learning, and implement a pilot.
– Deploy incubator capabilities to create marketplace
differentiation, by opening up to a new system of start-
ups, customers, think tanks, suppliers and even
competitors.
– Work collaboratively with educational institutes to identify
the skills of the future and the appropriate time to invest
in them.

The effects of digital innovation in Professional Services will

ripple through and beyond the industry. While the net impact
of digitalization is expected to be positive for society, some
groups may lose out economically. Increased automation will
raise difficult ethical decisions and may even reawaken the
spectre of "technological unemployment". Industry, policy-
makers and regulators will need to collaborate to tackle the
societal challenges that may arise from the digitalization of
Professional Services.

Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry 5

Industry Context and Technology
Trends
Technological breakthroughs are contributing to shifts in the economics of Professional Services. As
the industry's digitalization accelerates, the sector could be on the cusp of a transformation.

Professional Services already has a rich history – from the Agile and quick to adapt to clients’ changing needs
founding of the first guilds in the 11th century to the The ability of its practitioners to adjust to changing demand
establishment of royal colleges for surgeons, engineers and has been important in driving growth in Professional
architects in 18th-century Britain.1 Thanks, in part, to rapid Services. In segment after segment, strong companies have
technological advances, a new chapter in that history is been adapting by attracting the right talent and developing
ready to be written, as the industry's digitalization speeds up. new value propositions. As digital technologies disrupt
industries, this agility is in action again, today.
Professional Services companies are refashioning their
a. Professional Services today services to help clients innovate and embrace change in the
digital marketplace. Consulting firms are transitioning to
A growth sector and major employer more transformational work, helping clients execute their
The modern Professional Services industry2 has significant vision through short-term, iterative steps. Human capital
economic and social value. It is also a fast-growing source of firms are changing the way they map and source talent. In
employment in both developed and emerging markets. The addition, legal firms are thinking about the risks associated
surge in the variety of occupations and the number of with digitalization for their clients, and Professional Services
individuals classified as "technical or professional" may be multinationals are considering how to quantify the financial
correlated with the rapid evolution of technology in the late impact of digital transformation.
20th century.3 Professional and business services is now
estimated to be the second-largest employment sector in the  
United States (after healthcare), and is expected to grow to b. Digitalization in Professional Services
approximately 21 million jobs by 2024.4 Professional Services
account for 15% of the United Kingdom’s gross domestic Professional Services: Already a digital leader?
product (GDP) and employ 14% of its workforce,5 while the Professional Services may be proficient at adapting to its
service sector’s share of India's GDP increased from 33% in clients’ changing needs, but perspectives differ on the extent
1951 to 57% in 2015.6 of digitalization in the sector and whether the industry as a
whole has been disrupted.

From a market-facing perspective, Professional Services is in

>$120 billion the vanguard of digital transformation, with high levels of
Annual combined revenue of the Big Four accounting firms digitalization across most of the sector. The 2015 edition of
the McKinsey Global Institute's Industry Digitization Index
rates Professional Services as a relatively highly digitized
<$120 billion industry, with only Information and Communications
Individual GDPs of two-thirds of the world’s countries7,8 Technology, as well as Media, seen as more advanced in this
respect.

A critical link in every industry’s value chain In contrast, when viewing the industry leader board, one can
The Professional Services industry helps its clients set their conclude that Professional Services has not been disrupted
strategic direction, remain compliant, predict future risks, as much as industries such as Media, Telecommunications
recruit talent, and produce and audit their financial results. or Retail, despite the sector’s external focus and connections
The value of professionals in the eyes of corporations is with other industries. Supporting this perspective is a 2016
reflected by the trend of insourcing professionals.9 A 2015 survey by Russell Reynolds Associates of 2,000 highest-level
survey of more than 250 chief legal officers found that 40% executives on the impact of digital technologies across 15
of companies planned to decrease their spending on outside industries: only half of the Professional Services executives
counsel over the following year, with the majority planning to interviewed saw major change ahead.11
insource the work instead.10
Disruption ahead?
For this White Paper, the assessment of digital disruption in
Professional Services is nuanced. At the turn of the century,
the industry embraced the challenges and opportunities of

6 Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry

the outsourcing wave, leading to increased efficiency and Disruption is happening, but only in certain areas
new ways of providing services. New firms started to climb Viewed from a high level, the industry does appear to have
the industry leader board, including some from emerging escaped massive disruption, but the research for this White
markets with global ambitions. However, as digitalization Paper has highlighted that certain areas within Professional
accelerates today, a similarly seismic disruption has not yet Services do lend themselves to disruption. Leading firms are
shaken the entire industry: already driving disruption in many areas of their business.
The industry executives interviewed for this White Paper
– The impact will vary by segment; for example, audit is agreed that digital transformation is now at the tipping point,
seeing a significantly greater impact than, say, legal (see and are expecting it to have an increasing and accelerated
Figure 1). impact on the industry.
– The impact is greater on business models but, unlike the
wave of outsourcing, significant shifts in market share
from incumbents to disruptive innovators have not taken
place. This is particularly true in segments where firms
serve large clients. As one chief executive officer (CEO)
stated, “There is only one GE, and to help it solve its
unique issues requires talent, insight and a unique,
differentiated approach.”
– The strengthening market position of major players
through consolidation in certain segments of
Professional Services offers further evidence that
disruption's impact has so far been relatively limited.

36.3%
Market share of top 10 players in consulting in 201112

53.4%
Market share of top 10 players in consulting in 201513

Certain characteristics of Professional Services may have

shielded the industry as a whole from wholesale disruption.
These include:

– Professional Services firms serve large clients by solving

their unique problems with customized solutions. Using
digitalization to run analytics or to predict trends may be
too narrow or simplistic to solve a client’s problem.
– In an industry where client confidentiality is key, trust in a
brand is the foundation for providing expertise. A board
finds it easier to accept a business plan backed by a top
strategy company, or a merger-and-acquisitions deal
vetted by a respected law firm. Professional Services
companies benefit from brands established over
decades of close client relationships.
– Certain segments of Professional Services firms tend to
be quite regulated due to the sensitive nature of their
work (e.g. law and audit), although this may be changing
in certain markets.

Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry 7

 Consulting
(excluding
Technology
and Media)
Executive
Impact of technology by industry segment
Search

The extent to which digitalBig Law

technologies are disrupting Professional Services varies across segments. The impact of digital
technologies was explored and assessed by working with a panel of industry executives and using three lenses: business
model, operating model and competitive leader board. The conclusion reached was that technology has disrupted
Accounting and Audit the
Leastmost, and Big Law the least. Level of disruption Most

Figure 1: Impact of Technology by Industry Segment

Audit and
Accounting

Technology
and Media
Consulting
High-
Frequency,
High-Volume
Consulting Search
(excluding
Technology
Executive and Media)
Search

Big Law

Least Most
Level of disruption

Source: World Economic Forum/Accenture analysis

Accounting and Audit: This profession is believed to be most at risk from computerization and technology. A PwC research
report ranked professions by the likelihood of their being automated in the next 20 years. With a 97.5% probability,
accounting came on top.14 The business and operating models for this segment are also expected to shift significantly, as
24/7 automated solutions become increasingly prevalent.

Consulting: It has been predicted that cognitive AI could replace 30% of consulting resources by 2017.15 However, consulting
spans a broad spectrum, with levels of disruption varying in different areas. Technology and media consulting appears to be
experiencing disruption more than other areas. Higher-end services involving highly customized solutions are expected to be
less disrupted than those based on more repetitive analysis.

Executive Search: Technologies such as machine learning and digital platforms are changing the way executive search
companies source, assess and match talent. For example, firms such as Gild and Entelo analyse vast amounts of data from
CVs and social media profiles to automate certain recruiting tasks. The competitive environment is evolving rapidly;
companies that are currently clients could soon become competitors.

Big Law: Strict regulations have traditionally shielded the legal sector from disruption. However, a recent study by Deloitte
found that lower-skilled jobs, such as legal secretaries and paralegals, could be cut by 39% over the next two decades.16,17
Data science is enabling law firms to exploit large volumes of existing data to create value for their business.18

Advances in technology are opening the industry up to – Data, analytics and machine learning can
disruption revolutionize insight generation.
– Platforms can disrupt and disintermediate traditional
Several technologies have been identified as being critical to business models by bringing buyers and suppliers
driving disruption. Analysis of these technologies points to together.
the possibility of greater disruption ahead. The combination
of these technologies further reinforces the view that the The impact of each technology (see Figure 2) and the time for
industry is approaching a tipping point. it to be widely adopted varies. Many technologies are still
Important disruptive technologies include the following: nascent and will need to go through an innovation cycle
before they can be successfully brought to market.
– Artificial intelligence can boost productivity levels by
helping people learn, think, feel and perform better.

8 Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry

 technology) (preliminary view; non-exhaustive)

The technologies transforming Professional Servicesa

Innovations such as machine learning, natural language processing, blockchain, deep learning and talent science could have
a transformational impact on many segments of the Professional Services industry within the next decade. These
technologies have considerable potential to boost efficiency and security, cut costs or generate new revenues.

Virtual reality, video recruiting and augmented reality applications are among the technologies more likely to provide
incremental improvements to established processes over the same time frame. Similarly, more nascent innovations (e.g.
augmenting the human body to improve cognitive and physical performance beyond normal human limits) are unlikely to be
widely adopted and to precipitate the wholesale replacement of human workers in Professional Services during the next
decade.19

The impact of different technologies on Professional Services varies by industry segment, as Figure 2 illustrates.

Figure 2: Disruptive Impact of Digital Technologies on Professional Services, by Segment

Impacted by technology
Auditing &! Human!
Legal! Consulting!
Partially impacted by technology Accounting! Capital!

Machine Learning!

Deep Learning!

Data Science!

Smart Robots!

Natural Language Processing!

Virtual Reality!

3D Video Telepresence!

Blockchain / Distributed Ledgers!

E-Discovery Software!

a
This analysis of technologies is illustrative and non-exhaustive. A glossary of the technologies appears at the end of this White Paper.
Source: World Economic Forum/Accenture analysis

Some of these technologies are already making an impact in Disruptors are finding new ways to establish a trusted brand,
Professional Services. Digital trends indicate that technology as illustrated by the Kaggle case study. Online reputation
is slowly levelling the playing field: automation is lowering the systems (e.g. Avvo) are emerging for lawyers, allowing clients
cost to serve, global collaboration tools are allowing to rate lawyers based on their skill and pricing.20 Apps are
freelancers to work from anywhere, and platforms are helping professionals to better understand personality types
bringing clients closer to freelancers. These developments, and build stronger client relationships. Advances in
coupled with data ubiquity, are empowering the client, technology are even expected to help robots develop some
marking a shift in the way expertise will be procured and emotional intelligence in the future.
shared in the future.

Case Study: Kaggle – Building Trust and a Brand through Crowdsourcing

Kaggle, a platform for data science, hosts competitions in which statisticians and data miners from around the world
compete to produce the best models for solving data-based problems posted by companies and researchers. The top-three
data scientists get financial rewards, and Kaggle charges the client a flat fee for checking the quality of the work. As
countless strategies can be applied to any predictive modelling task, this crowdsourcing approach relies on not knowing at
the outset which technique or analyst will be most effective. Kaggle also hosts recruiting competitions, in which data
scientists compete for a chance to interview at leading data science companies (e.g. Facebook or Walmart). In a sense,
Kaggle has also crowdsourced its own brand, as its reputation rests on the quality of the data scientists participating in its
competitions.

Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry 9

c. The changing economics of US tax returns were filed online in 2015.21 LinkedIn has
enabled clients to vet proposed consultants before procuring
Professional Services services. Availability of and access to this data has allowed
clients to have more say in how they procure expertise.
Digital disruption is contributing to a fundamental shift in the Insourcing of professionals has also injected more
dynamics of the supply of and demand for Professional transparency into their work by reducing the degree of
Services. The industry's economics are changing in three separation between them and their clients. This has created
key ways: an expectation of high-quality professional expertise at an
affordable price point.
1. An evolving demand landscape
2. New dynamics of supply
“As both the definition of data and its availability
become ever more dynamic, analysis can no longer be Traditionally, the Professional Services industry has relied on
static in spreadsheets. The client now wants to know human skills to meet clients’ needs. Machines are now
everything in real time.” acquiring expertise based on cognition and memory, which
was once solely a human capability. Rapid advances in
John Romeo, Managing Partner, North America, Oliver Wyman Group
machine learning and robotic process automation (RPA) are
helping to create a new source of supply in the Professional
Ubiquitous data and pervasive technology give clients Services market.
greater insight into how professions work. Legal texts are
now available online for anyone to read. More than 91% of

Case Study: Baker & Hostetler – Ross, the Artificially Intelligent Lawyer

The law firm of Baker & Hostetler recently employed its first artificially intelligent lawyer, Ross, built on Watson, IBM’s cognitive
computing platform. Hired for Baker & Hostetler’s bankruptcy practice, where 50 human lawyers currently work, Ross is
designed to read and understand language, postulate hypotheses when questioned, research, and then generate responses
(along with references and citations) to back up its conclusions. Learning from experience, Ross gains speed and knowledge
the more lawyers interact with it. The AI-powered lawyer also constantly monitors current litigation so it can notify colleagues
about recent court decisions that may affect their cases. Other firms have also signed licences with Ross.22

114,000 3. Alternative marketplaces

Number of legal-sector jobs likely to be automated in the
next 20 years23 Online platforms now offer a convenient alternative to the
traditional physical marketplace for services. Clients and
customers can seek professional help from anywhere and at
Digital innovations are improving workplace productivity, any time. Upwork is a platform connecting 5 million client
which is expected to rise by 22% by 2020,24 and reducing businesses with more than 12 million freelancers. In the legal
the amount of labour needed to complete a job (by 4% per profession, virtual courtrooms are replacing the need for
year in consulting to 2019).25 Technology is supporting physical ones, as lawyers, witnesses and judges can now
increasingly effective remote collaboration, boosting hold hearings via video link.27 Buttressing this trend are the 3
productivity and enabling a shift towards freelance work. billion people who now have internet access and the 2 billion
using smartphones, both of which are accelerating the
change in how services are bought and sold.

43% These dramatic shifts in the dynamics of supply and demand

Proportion of US workforce expected to be freelance by are creating a need for Professional Services firms to analyse
202026 every aspect of their own businesses – in much the same
way they would assess a client’s – if they are to seize the
opportunities provided by digital transformation.
Professional Services firms must also confront a new source
of competition emerging from other industries. Clients of
Professional Services companies now have access to
unprecedented amounts of data, enabling them to move
from selling products to selling outcomes. As a result, they
are now encroaching on the territory traditionally occupied
by consulting firms. An example is GE’s Predix platform,
used by industrial companies to generate insights from vast
troves of operational data.

10 Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry

Future Horizons

“It took 65 years to grow Baker & McKenzie and our a. Business model transformation
comprehensive global footprint. Today smaller firms can
connect with each other and potentially achieve scale Firms are repositioning themselves for the digital world,
much faster; the challenge for them will be to become a taking new data-based offerings to clients and fostering an
truly integrated global firm.” ecosystem of partners across the industry value chain and
beyond.
Erik T. H. Scheer, Partner and Member of the Executive Committee, Baker
& McKenzie
Digitalization offers Professional Services companies an
opportunity to fundamentally transform how their business
The Professional Services industry should view digitalization turns a profit. They can enhance their go-to-market strategy
as an ally as it strives to provide quality expertise at scale to by creating digital and data-rich solutions, and spur
businesses and individuals, and further improve its innovation by collaborating within a system of partners. The
operational efficiency. research for this White Paper indicates that these more
Four themes will likely have the greatest impact in the digital decisive companies will continue to gain momentum.
transformation of Professional Services over the next
decade: “New digital business models are the principal reason
why just over half of the names of companies on the
Business model transformation. Digitalization Fortune 500 have disappeared since the year 2000. And
empowers firms to change every facet of how yet, we are only at the beginning of what the World
they go to market: their services, value Economic Forum calls the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’,
propositions, target customers and price points. characterized not only by mass adoption of digital
Firms are repositioning themselves with new technologies but by innovations in everything from
services for the digital world and fostering a system of energy to biosciences.”
partners across the industry value chain and beyond.
Pierre Nanterme, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Accenture

Intelligent automation. Expertise, the primary

offering of the Professional Services industry, Enhancing the go-to-market strategy
has traditionally been provided by people.
However, emerging technologies such as Professional Services firms are evolving their offerings to
analytics, AI and deep learning are augmenting keep pace with digitalization, building digital platforms to
professionals’ ability to "do", "think", "learn" and "feel". This facilitate conversations with clients. New data is generating
can enhance the quality and volume of expertise, and lower novel insights to solve specific client needs. Firms are
the cost to serve. partnering with clients to offer dynamic, subscription-based
solutions rather than static spreadsheets. Major ways in
Digital agility. Companies that can anticipate which companies are transforming their client-facing
change, react faster than competitors, and business include:
adapt their strategies and processes in light of
disruptive events are able to stay ahead of the – Providing offers for the digital age. Firms are
curve. Firms are becoming more responsive by supplying relevant digital services – for example, by
adopting a flexible workforce, promoting an agile culture and using digital as an integrated growth platform to position
investing in smart digital infrastructure to encourage themselves as one-stop shops for all digital needs.
productivity and creativity.
Case Study: BCG Digital Ventures – Creating
Talent empowerment. Reimagining the Disruptive Digital Businesses
employee experience to offer the right value
proposition will be imperative for firms in the The Boston Consulting Group launched BCG Digital
digital world. They will need to leverage new Ventures in 2014 as a corporate investment and venture
technologies or models to source talent, and development firm. Its focus is building, incubating and
maintain high engagement levels by ensuring that talent is scaling disruptive digital businesses. It helps invent, build and
appropriately trained and dynamically managed. launch category-changing businesses at start-up speed for
the world’s largest corporations, enabling them to reinvent
These themes encompass both opportunities for and threats themselves. The firm shares risk and invests alongside its
to the existing businesses of Professional Services firms. clients.
Within each theme, firms can implement concrete initiatives
to accelerate their transformation and fully realize their digital
potential.

Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry 11

– Developing data-based services. Systemic presence As the speed of digitalization increases, Professional
and data capture are making data ubiquitous. Big-data Services firms are becoming partners to clients, helping
analytics and brute-force analysis are spotting trends them to imagine the future and execute that vision. Thus,
and generating insights like never before, at fractional outcome-based pricing, which is typically associated with
cost. Professional Services firms are using this to partnerships and joint ventures, has become common.
Figure
strengthen 3: Total
their existing funding
services, and
or to offer newnumber
ones. of deals in
the Professional Services industry “Going forward, a greater percentage of work will be
Case Study: Lex Machina – Mining Litigation Data
sold through subscriptions and licences, rather than
for New Insights
hourly charge-out rates. At the moment, this trend is in
its initial stages, but the legal sector is capable of
Lex Machina mines litigation data, revealing previously
developing it further.”
unavailable insights about judges, lawyers, parties and
patents, culled from millions of pages of intellectual property Bas Boris Visser, Global Head, Innovation and Business Change, Clifford
(IP) litigation. Corporate counsel use Lex Machina to select Chance
and manage outside counsel, increase IP value and income,
protect company assets and compare performance with
competitors. Law-firm attorneys and their staff use Lex Fostering a digital environment
Machina to pitch and land new clients, win IP lawsuits, close
transactions and prosecute new patents. Prominent clients Traditionally, enterprises have owned their end-to-end
include eBay, Microsoft and Shire Pharmaceuticals. The services and related functions. Recently, however, a shift has
company claims that the total number of patent litigation occurred towards cultivating systems of partnerships
cases filed has increased by more than 100% in the past between incumbents and start-ups. This change has
three years. fostered innovation, promoted specialization and made
operations more agile. It has also helped companies create
– Adjusting revenue models. Professional Services firms new and innovative value propositions for clients at lower
(in particular, consulting, law and accounting firms) have price points.
traditionally followed capacity-leasing models, hiring out
their resources to clients for a fixed period of time at an Over the past five years, the worldwide value of venture-
hourly rate. With clients now demanding dynamic capital and private-equity funding worldwide in Professional
support, a shift has occurred towards outcome- or Services has increased more than tenfold, and the number
subscription-based models that provide them with of such deals has jumped by 140% (see Figure 3). These
real-time solutions. Bloomberg and Capital IQ are figures indicate an acceleration in disruptor and start-up
examples of companies providing these new solutions. activity within the industry.

Preliminary themes and initiatives

Figure 3:impact across
Total Funding and Number of value
Deals in thechain
Professional Services Industry Worldwide

Total Funding* Number of Deals for

($ billion) Professional Services**
5.8
6.0 600
5.3

5.0 4.6 500

378
4.0 365 400

3.0 252 300

190
2.0 145 200

0.8
1.0 0.5 100

Q2’11-Q2’12 Q2’12-Q2’13 Q2’13-Q2’14 Q2’14-Q2’15 Q2’15-Q2’16

*Total Funding (Includes funding by VCs, Corporates / Corp VCs, Private Equity, Angel and Others)
**Number of Deals for Professional Services (Includes Consulting & Outsourcing, Legal Services and HR & Staffing)

Source: CBSource:
Insights
CB Insights

12 Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry

Case Study: KPMG and IBM – Deploying Cognitive Law is also affected, as modularizing work allows firms to
Technology to Enhance Professional Services break down briefs into discrete tasks, such as due diligence,
document review, legal research, document assembly and
KPMG has partnered with IBM to use its Watson cognitive routine contract drafting. This permits pieces of work to be
computing platform to enhance its Professional Services automated, crowdsourced, outsourced, subcontracted or
offerings, particularly in audit and assurance services. performed by paralegals.
Cognitive technology can analyse a larger percentage of
available data, giving KPMG professionals deeper insights Case Study: LeClair Ryan – Unbundling Litigation
into a client’s financial and business operations. Cognitive- Work to Lower Costs
enabled processes also allow auditors to focus on higher-
value activities, such as offering additional insights relating to LeClair Ryan, a law firm, launched its Discovery Solutions
risk. The partnership is expected to help KPMG develop new Practice to serve lower-margin work. Clients can unbundle
offerings and meet its extensive audit-specific security, litigation work and "right-source" certain tasks to the firm at a
confidentiality and compliance requirements.28 dramatically lower cost. LeClair Ryan coordinates this work
with its higher-value service of lead counsel, which focuses on
more complex aspects of litigation.
“The world is complex, so Professional Services firms
can’t do everything on their own. They need an Consultancies are also modularizing work by separating tasks
ecosystem of partners outside.” such as knowledge capture, research, content creation and
data analysis. Experts are now being tapped using digital-only
Eric Gervet, Partner, A.T. Kearney
platforms such as 10 EQS or the Corporate Executive Board.
Several consulting firms have offshored parts of their research
work to centres in developing markets. At the same time,
Case Study: Accenture's Open Innovation Platform consulting firms’ expertise in data analysis is being unbundled
– Helping to Bring Innovative Start-Ups to Market into a range of off-the-shelf software and tools for their clients.
Deloitte’s offerings have been unbundled to include a range of
Accenture’s Open Innovation Platform works with top-tier nine products within Deloitte Managed Analytics, and
accelerators, start-ups, venture capitalists, universities and McKinsey Solutions offers 16 unbundled products.30
corporate research and development labs to build and bring
innovative solutions to market.29 By bridging the gap Case Study: McKinsey Solutions – Servicing
between clients and the start-up community, Accenture Clients with Software- and Technology-Based
helps clients meet their business-transformation objectives. Analytics
Accenture also connects its partners with pioneering clients
to create compelling growth opportunities. This system for McKinsey Solutions has unbundled its offerings to provide
innovation is a source of ideas that can help fuel an software- and technology-based analytics that can be
enterprise’s research agenda, identify trends that shape embedded in a client’s business. The services include pricing
strategy and roadmaps, develop new products and and promotion tools to improve the return on sales,
solutions, and explore new markets. In each case, Accenture organizational health indices and benchmarking solutions.
serves as a vital facilitator between the players.
Augmenting human intelligence
b. Intelligent automation As the primary output delivered by the Professional Services
industry, expertise has historically been provided by people.
Emerging technologies such as analytics, AI and deep
However, machines are augmenting key human capabilities
learning are augmenting professionals’ abilities to do, think,
so that expertise can be provided to clients more efficiently,
learn and feel.
using a combination of people and machines. This will
enhance the quality and volume of expertise provided, while
Intelligent automation uses technology to perform highly
lowering the cost to serve.
repeatable tasks that previously required human time and
effort. By modularizing work (breaking down the "job" into
When examining which human capabilities are most
discrete tasks), and then either crowdsourcing or investing in
important for professionals to provide expertise, the degree to
the right technology to perform those readily automatable
which each of these is augmented by technology was also
tasks, companies can decrease the cost and time to serve
investigated. In addition, the analysis included the views of a
while increasing accuracy.
panel of industry executives. The results are summarized in
Figure 4.
Modularizing work
Most of the executives interviewed agreed that emerging
Modularizing work breaks down Professional Services
technologies will augment professionals’ capability to do
projects so that professional expertise can be matched
(RPA, blockchain), think (AI), learn (machine learning) and,
precisely to customers' needs, thus lowering the cost to
eventually, feel (deep learning, social networks). However,
serve. Super-specialized new entrants are unbundling
"feel" is expected to remain a uniquely human capability in the
specific tasks from larger projects and, as their expertise in
near future and will continue to give people a competitive
modularizing work deepens, are moving up the industry
advantage over machines in the next decade.
value chain to tackle increasingly complex projects.
Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry 13
Figure 4: Emerging Technologies Can Augment Professionals’ Ability to Provide Expertise

THINK! DO!
Insight Generation Communication
Kensho Quill (Narrative Science), Amelia
Creativity Presentation
Project Dreamcatcher, Rembrandt BeamPro, Magic Leap
Cognition
Watson, DeepMind
Organization
Amy (x.ai)
Memory
Robo Brain FEEL!
LEARN! Relationship Building
Crystal, LinkedIn
Empathy
Pepper
Instinct
Uniquely human

Appearance
Sophia

Note: The degree to which technology is augmenting human capabilities is indicated by the ideograms next to each capability. Definitions of the human
capabilities represented can be found in the appendix, along with details of those case studies not included in the main body of the White Paper.
Source: World Economic Forum/Accenture analysis

The distinctly human abilities of discernment, abstract Case Study: x.ai – Harnessing Artificial Intelligence
thinking and contextual reasoning are maximized when to Schedule Meetings
automation frees up time for people to focus on the
judgement-rich work machines cannot do. For example, in Start-up x.ai has created "Amy Ingram", an AI-powered
the legal profession, due diligence, corporate services and personal assistant for scheduling meetings. Users wishing to
stand-up contracts are open to automation, but boardroom set up a meeting are encouraged to communicate with Amy
counselling, corporate advice and tax advice less so. In as though she were human, by copying her on emails. She
accounting, increased automation could lead to changes in then manages the back-and-forth communication to set up
existing roles (e.g. accounts-payable clerks could focus more the meeting by looking for a mutually convenient time in
on exceptions rather than routine scenarios) and the everyone’s calendar.32 According to its CEO, x.ai’s
emergence of new careers (e.g. data scientists, scenario addressable market is 87 million US-based knowledge
planners and market makers). workers, who need to arrange more than 10 billion meetings
each year.33 Today, the product is free, and the plan is to keep
Case Study: Kensho – Using Big Data and Machine a free tier in place, as paid tiers are added. The free tier will
Learning to Answer Complex Research Queries likely limit the number of meetings a user can arrange. The
start-up initially raised $9.2 million at a $40-million valuation in
Kensho augments human capabilities to think, learn and do January 2015,34 then an additional $23 million in April 2016,
by combining big data and machine learning to analyse the which valued the company at approximately $100 million.35
impact of real-world events on financial markets and answer
complex financial queries automatically. In the past, a trader
or analyst had to conduct research by accessing multiple c. Digital agility
databases using certain keywords. Kensho’s search engine
automatically categorizes events according to abstract Companies with workforce flexibility, an agile work culture
features, a process that takes just a few minutes. Generating and smart infrastructure can anticipate change, react faster
a similar query without automation could take about 40 than competitors, and adapt their strategies and processes
man-hours, a significant investment for companies whose in response to disruptive events.
employees are paid an average salary of $350,000 to
$500,000. Goldman Sachs is Kensho’s largest investor and “The competition that kills you won't look like you.”
uses it to perform research work. JPMorgan Chase and Bank
of America have also recently signed up with Kensho.31 Richard Susskind, Advisory Board Member and Visiting Professor, Oxford
Internet Institute, University of Oxford

14 Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry

 Figure 7: Types of labour models (Illustrative)
With disruptive events often shifting the industry landscape Figure 5 illustrates three models for organizing a workforce:
unexpectedly, adaptability and agility have emerged as traditional (fixed), flexible or hybrid. In a traditional labour
distinguishing characteristics of high-performing businesses. model, a client engages a Professional Services firm, which
This theme highlights the tools that organizations and their then allocates internal resources to serve the client. In a
workforces need to react nimbly to the digital economy's flexible model, the Professional Services firm has no talent on
unrelenting pace of change. its books, but crowdsources on-demand workers for specific
projects. A third model is also emerging, as a hybrid of the
Developing a flexible workforce first two: when the Professional Services firm is engaged, it
decides which tasks it prefers to do in-house and which
Platforms enable organizations to flex their workforces, could be best allocated to freelancers via on-demand
manage capacity effectively and crowdsource super- platforms.
specialists for specific tasks. The result is an operating model
with greater agility.36

Figure 5: Three Models for Organizing a Workforce

CLIENT
PROFESSIONAL INTERNAL EXTERNAL
SERVICES FIRM TALENT TALENT EXAMPLE

Traditional

Hybrid

Flexible

Source: World Economic Forum/Accenture analysis

Case Study: Eden McCallum – Using Freelance Nurturing an agile culture

Consultants to Build Lean Project Teams

The consulting firm Eden McCallum assembles leaner project “Historically, we drove change by transforming people,
teams of freelance consultants (mostly mid-level and senior process or technology. In a digital world, the interplay
alumni of top consultancies) for clients at a lower cost than between these three dimensions is more dynamic – and
traditional competitors. It achieves this economy because the pace of change considerably more accelerated.
freelance teams do not carry the fixed costs of unstaffed time, Those who embrace change and adapt quickly will be
expensive downtown real estate, recruitment and training. rewarded.”

Mark Goodburn, Chairman, Global Advisory Services, KPMG

Case Study: PwC – Creating a Marketplace for
Freelancers
Agility is a cornerstone of successful digital transformation.
PwC has a marketplace for freelance workers on its Talent High-performing companies can rapidly reconfigure their
Exchange platform. Launched in 2016, the platform is geared offerings to meet client needs. A nimble mindset across a
towards the firm’s consulting business, allowing PwC to staff Professional Services firm’s talent pool helps the company
projects using freelancers on an on-demand basis. It is rapidly identify new markets and deploy tailored solutions.
projected that freelancers will eventually make up 10% of the Internal agility also empowers businesses to quickly fix
firm’s US consulting workforce, which currently stands at mistakes and learn from them.
13,000.

Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry 15

As companies look for greater agility and employees seek and free communication advice. As work communications
more flexibility, a nimble organizational culture can create a move away from in-person meetings around a conference
win-win for the company and its employees. Nurturing an table towards virtual chatrooms, misunderstandings are more
organizational culture with the following attributes can help likely to occur. The app steps in to coach individuals on
both the organization and the individual employee to thrive: empathy and assist non-native English speakers. Sales
executives from over 75% of Fortune 500 companies use
1. Encourage a healthy attitude towards risk. A higher Crystal. For prices ranging from $19 to $49 a month, the
tolerance of failure can spur innovation. Professional Crystal Gmail plugin offers real-time editing suggestions to
standards and internal policies are important, but should tailor an email to the recipient’s personality. It analyses publicly
not be seen as an immovable barrier to change. available data sources to categorize professionals into 64
2. Mobilize employee intelligence. Dynamic role personality types, then extrapolates from this to identify their
descriptions and distributed authority can unlock communication style.
creativity in the workforce. A shift away from centralized
planning and control towards distributed decision-making Augmented reality (AR) could transform how employees and
in real time accelerates the pace at which an organization clients collaborate around the globe. With about 40% of
can operate.38 workers expected to freelance in the future,43 working
environments will need to be a seamless blend of the virtual
3. Facilitate collaboration. The cross-fertilization and and the real. Tools such as videoconferencing and live chat
blossoming of creative ideas is encouraged by employees that enable immersive, face-to-face interactions will be
joining overlapping communities within a company. invaluable.
Instilling a belief with both the enterprise and its
employees that collaboration is less about owning and
more about sharing benefits can lead to better
communication, trust and knowledge distribution.39 d. Talent empowerment
In a digitalized world, reimagining what it means to be an
A digital culture is increasingly important for business growth.
employee and remodelling the value proposition for employees
Responsibility for nurturing that digital culture starts with
accordingly will be imperative.
leadership. Business leaders with digital credentials can help
an organization digitally transform on both the inside
This theme highlights the importance of ensuring talent is hired
(operations, culture, practices and workforce) and the outside
with greater precision, and is appropriately trained and
(company image and appeal to prospective employees).
dynamically managed so that employees can reach their
potential.
Investing in smart infrastructure
Reimagining hiring
Using digitally enabled infrastructure enhances internal
productivity and creativity, and improves the employee and How should firms recruit, and whom? How many people
client experience a firm offers. should they recruit? As digital technologies transform the
Professional Services industry, the answers to these questions
Innovative project-management tools offer convenient are evolving.
alternatives to clunky software for organizing work, and smart
vision systems facilitate social analysis and relationship building. Recruiters and candidates already have tools to make hiring
Microsoft’s vision of the future computer – a machine that more efficient. Hiring coaches help candidates manage their
tracks hand motions with high precision – could remove the profiles across various platforms, including LinkedIn and
need for a mouse and keyboard.40 The IBM-Cisco partnership Glassdoor, which have fostered new, direct interactions
opens up the possibility of integrating IBM’s email platform with between recruiters and candidates. These trends will only
Cisco’s messaging products, enhancing employee productivity strengthen with time. AI is also set to play a leading role,
by making routine tasks simpler (e.g. setting up meetings).41 enabling recruiters to scan thousands of CVs and shortlist
Tangible user interfaces could make workspaces more
candidates more efficiently.44
interactive. The vision of Google’s Daydream Labs – letting
users tell stories in virtual reality (VR) through 3D-animation
techniques – could transform how professionals such as
Case Study: Entelo – Using Big-Data Analytics for
designers and consultants present their work.42 Recruitment

Enterprises that empower workers at all levels with the Entelo leverages big data, predictive analytics and social signals
appropriate digital tools and infrastructure can steer their to help recruiting organizations find, qualify and engage with
employees towards sounder business decision-making, talent. Diversity features, which are used by about half of
greater efficiency and enhanced creativity. customers, allow companies to target specific genders or
ethnicities. Entelo’s clients are mostly small, fast-growing
technology companies paying either $500 a month or $5,000 a
Case Study: Crystal – Helping Professionals
year to run targeted searches of its databases. Entelo uses
Connect and Communicate proprietary algorithms to focus on candidates who are more
likely to change jobs, and to identify candidates from under-
Crystal helps workers build productive relationships by represented backgrounds. It also provides an initial means of
understanding the personalities of people they communicate stack-ranking and scoring CVs, enabling companies to
with. It offers instant access to millions of personality profiles

16 Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry

continually score candidates against job openings and to rethink the learning model for young people entering the
create dynamic talent pools.45 sector.

Case Study: Glassdoor – Bringing Transparency to Although automation's role in the industry will grow in
the Job Market importance, the quality of recruits will remain paramount.
Competitive advantage will derive from producing outputs of
Glassdoor helps employers promote their brand to active impeccable quality on an otherwise level playing field. Merely
jobseekers, and advertise openings to others who might be substituting robots for human workers risks removing the
ideal for the job but are not aware of the opportunity. "human touch" from work and increases the likelihood of
Glassdoor’s employer-review platform also helps talent get a "mechanical" errors creeping in. This underlines the
clearer idea of the management style and policies of importance of training employees to work hand in hand with
prospective employers. The platform relies on current and machines.
former employees contributing anonymous reviews of
companies. Its users have generated more than 7.5 million Advances in technology are also changing training and
reviews, ratings and salary reports that now cover more than education by democratizing access to knowledge, enabling
340,000 companies in over 190 countries. Glassdoor’s individuals to become lifelong learners. This is leading to
valuation is close to $1 billion. shifts in how people learn, the availability of educational
resources, and access to learning opportunities. Learners
Other technology trends are also reshaping recruitment. can use a continually growing knowledge base on demand
Partial automation of entry-level jobs is expected to change through massive open online courses (MOOCs). Udacity, a
the number of junior staff that companies recruit. This may leading provider of MOOCs, offers nanodegree programmes
lead to a shrinking corporate pyramid and flatter to prepare students for careers in fields such as data
organizational structures – developments that would require science, machine learning, and Android or iOS development.
an adjustment to hiring strategies. Some companies are In addition to providing tailored programmes for individuals,
already preparing for this new dynamic: EY in the United Udacity partners with companies to deliver training for
Kingdom and Ireland expects the number of graduates it in-demand skills.
recruits to fall by 50% by 2020. (The company hired 1,200
graduates in 2015).46 VR is another technology redefining how individuals acquire
knowledge. Immerse Learning is a company that specializes
Beyond the added efficiency that digitalization can bring to in harnessing this technology for training; it creates an
recruitment, firms need to consider the long-term immersive learning experience, allowing users to adapt to
sustainability of their recruitment plans. Identifying the skills new environments.
of the future and investing in them are critical to remaining
sustainable. This is especially challenging when the future Designing the employee experience
may bring as yet unimagined roles requiring new skills in data
science, intuition, pattern finding, and dealing with Professional Services firms must take into account the
complexity and change management. mindset of the upcoming generation of employees. Nearly
three-quarters of future talent would choose to work at an
organization with an engaging, positive social atmosphere,
Case Study: The Big Four in Accounting –
even if it meant accepting a lower salary. Only one in seven
Changing Hiring Practices with Data Analytics graduates wants to work for a large company, believing
smaller employers provide the opportunities and social
As entry-level work becomes increasingly automated, the Big culture they seek. Large corporations will therefore need to
Four accounting firms are changing their hiring practices and adapt their culture to attract fresh talent.49
looking to include more “algorithm design geeks”. As Adrian
Stone, UK Head of Audit at KPMG, explained, “We’re not at As a result of this evolution in expectations, employee
the stage of computers replacing people. Right now the experience design is emerging, where processes, structure
challenge is to make sure we have the correct balance of and culture are reshaped at an organizational level, and tools
people who will do the interpreting and people who will make are redesigned to be not only organization-centric, but also
sure computers are set up to interrogate properly.” Jon employee-centric.50 Moreover, companies are using AI to
Raphael, Chief Innovation Officer at Deloitte in New York, said keep staff motivated by setting fitness goals, sleep objectives
the company was “starting to hire more specialists to help and medical check-ups.51
with data analysis and data acquisition”.47

Training talent 89%

Proportion of employees who believe their performance will
With the number of entry-level jobs in Professional Services significantly improve if performance
forecast to fall, training young professionals on the job is management is changed further52
likely to become more difficult. The expectations of millennial
talent magnify the problem: 58% of recent graduates expect Performance management is also being revisited to better
to pursue on-the-job learning, with opportunities for real-time account for the diversity of workforce segments, become
coaching and feedback. Only 38% expect to pursue more open and transparent, foster real-time conversations
employer-provided formal training.48 This disconnect and coaching, and move people-related decisions closer to
between the expectations of young professionals and the those involved.53
future state of recruitment in the industry signals the need to
Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry 17
Inhibitors and Key Questions
Advances in digital technology and shifts in economies could revolutionize Professional Services.
However, the following barriers to change, as well as important questions for members of the industry,
need to be addressed.

1. The innovator’s dilemma. Certain trends within the Managers have an incomplete understanding of what
industry underline the need for Professional Services they may need to thrive in a partnership with intelligent
firms to constantly revaluate their business and operating machines. Managerial ranks suffer from a trust gap and
models and, if necessary, confront the innovator’s a lack of a clear path for realizing the opportunity
dilemma. The modularization of work and ubiquity of presented by automation and augmentation.
data are making professionals' work more widely
understood by clients. The "platformization" of the Key question: Are managers at all levels in your
professions means that expertise is not necessarily organization ready to trust machines with their work?
sought from the nearest expert, but the best one.
Professional Services firms therefore need to 3. Traditional key performance indicators. Like their
continuously challenge the way they do things and be counterparts in other industries, firms in Professional
willing to reinvent themselves, with the agility to execute Services focus on maximizing financial value through
at pace. Figure 5: Do managers trust intelligent systems?
metrics such as quarterly shareholder returns,
profitability and chargeability. In contrast, start-ups are
Key question: Are you ready to adopt technologies that not encumbered by a short-term focus on traditional
may disrupt your own market in the short term? performance measures, which allows for greater risk-
taking. To truly spur innovation in the Professional
2. Low adoption rates of technology. From top Services industry, employees need to think in the long
management to front-line managers who actually work term by re-examining performance measures.
hand in hand with machines, the trust in advice provided
by intelligent systems is rapidly declining (see Figure 6). Key question: Are you using long-term performance
measures to encourage risk-taking and innovation?

of Managers of
Figure 6: PercentagePercentage Whomanagers who the
Strongly Trust strongly
Advicetrust the advice
of Intelligent of intelligent systems
Systems

46% 24% 14%

Top-level Middle-level Front-line

managers managers managers

Source: Accenture, Managers and machines, unite!, 2015

18 Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry

Imperatives for Industry and Societal
Implications
Inspiring leadership is critical to digital success. An illustrative list of near-term and one-year action
plans have been developed to help executives become effective digital leaders.

Inspiring leadership for digital transformation company. Leaders are encouraged to be bold in exploring
options for dramatically changing what their companies do
In today’s disruptive and uncertain market environment, (the business model) and how it is done (the operating
CEOs may decide to focus on experimentation, using model). Thinking without constraint about how the industry’s
real-time data for instant feedback about the effectiveness of landscape could be reshaped over the next 10 to 15 years
strategic initiatives. Shorter-term planning cycles could be will be central to reimagining Professional Services.
beneficial. CEOs should also bear in mind that, with the pace
of change so rapid, using past data to guide future actions is Imperatives for Professional Services executives
unlikely to be successful. A culture of constant, iterative
World Economic
experimentation Forumeffective.
is more White Paper
55
The list of near-term and one-year action plans set out here
Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry are for executives looking to transform their companies'
Strong board- and CEO-level sponsorship is vital if digital businesses and operating models with digital technologies.
transformation is to have a significant and lasting impact at a

Digital theme Near-term action plan One-year action plan

1. Gather information on business model 1. Deploy incubator capabilities to open up

changes being made by direct competitors to a new environment of start-ups,
and companies in related or adjacent customers, think tanks, suppliers and
spaces, and assess suitability. even competitors and thus create
Business model marketplace differentiation.
transformation 2. Cultivate a market research team that
works closely with data scientists to 2. Develop additional subscription-based
identify new needs and thus create new offerings backed by data.
data-based services.
3. Create a list of disruptors and other
organizations to partner with to gain
synergies. Map this against a list of
functions that the company doesn’t need
to perform in-house to create a list of
priorities.

1. Build a comprehensive view of labour- 1. Review the top areas for automation and
intensive business processes or specific machine-learning projects as determined
applications that require frequent and in the immediate action plan. Implement
manual updates. Identify opportunities to one plan as a pilot.
Intelligent
modularize work and to invest in
automation 2. Create training programmes to ensure
automation and machine-learning
talent is educated in the latest deep-
capabilities.
learning and AI technologies.
2. Cultivate data talent, and develop a plan
3. Develop a research and development
to build, buy and/or partner to improve
function for Professional Services.
data and automation know-how.
3. Create a "people first" strategy to plan
organizational transition, training
1
employees to keep skills up to date.56

Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry 19

 Near-term action plan One-year action plan

1. Clarify the company’s engagement with 1. Make rapid decisions and execute
freelancers from legal and operational them. Reinforce senior leadership
standpoints. alignment around critical topics so
that parties are already aligned when
Digital agility 2. Conduct an as-is analysis of smart
rapid decisions are required.
infrastructure used in the company. Map it
against the latest infrastructure in the 2. Establish the right digital traction
market. metrics so that the company does not
rely solely on financial metrics to
3. Encourage digital adoption within i
gauge performance.57
organizations by pressing on with
introducing "simpler" technologies, thus 3. Explore how multigenerational boards
gradually increasing the acceptance of can be used to promote organizational
digital technologies. agility.
4. Evaluate the need to establish or
partner with a platform.

1. Analyse if hiring is leveraging the latest 1. Create a culture of lifelong learning.

technology and platforms, and is agile Commit to employees' development
enough to adapt to transforming by promoting learning agility through
Talent organizational needs. nanodegree exercises.
empowerment 2. Determine what investments in 2. Proactively plan for the organization's
infrastructure, platforms, technology and need for skills. Leverage AI to develop
people are needed to deliver high-quality customized learning paths for the
training across the workforce. organization's talent.
3. Recreate the company's engagement 3. Integrate predictive analytics into
strategy to factor in millennials’ demands. human resources (HR). Pair an HR
Develop a plan that allows employees to team with data scientists to derive
move freely through the organization and new insights from the organization's
find work that best matches their interest workforce.
and capabilities.

Is society ready for technology-driven professionals? efficient, saving many man-hours of process-oriented work.
AI and other technologies are driving down the cost to serve,
Societal benefits making it inexpensive and convenient for citizens to access
While digital transformation is helping the Professional Professional Services. DoNotPay and TurboTax, examples of
Services industry scale up and make its offerings more disruptors in the industry, are automating legal advice and
affordable and accessible, the effects of digital innovation are taxation, respectively.
also rippling beyond the industry. Both employees and
members of civil society are already starting to reap the Case Study: DoNotPay – A Pro Bono Robot
benefits. Lawyer
Employees can gain in numerous ways. Automation and DoNotPay, a robot lawyer, was initially set up to use AI to help
smart infrastructure enhance their productivity, freeing up users contest parking tickets through an easy-to-use chat-
time for leisure activities or intellectual pursuits. Platforms like interface. It has overturned more than $4 million in fines
provide employees with unprecedented access to new from over 100,000 parking tickets in London and New York,
career avenues, both by enhancing their ability to showcase and has achieved a 64% win rate out of the 250,000 cases
their skills and by making it easier for them to find suitable filed. A freely available tool, DoNotPay asks users questions,
opportunities. This should maximize the chances of workers such as, “Were you or someone you know driving?” If the bot
achieving their true potential and finding meaningful work. determines that an appeal is justified, it generates a letter that
Tools for collaboration and flexible business models give can be brought to the appeals court. DoNotPay is now
employees the option to work from anywhere – for example, turning its pro bono efforts to homelessness, enabling
by giving parents, especially mothers, a greater opportunity wrongly evicted tenants to file a case to get shelter and claim
to participate in the workforce. relief. The company’s other services also help various
groups, including travellers to deal with flight-delay
Society at large will also benefit from digitalization. Data compensation, HIV-positive people to better understand their
mining and digital platforms are already making public rights, and refugees to navigate foreign legal systems.58
institutions, such as courtrooms and taxation offices, more

20 Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry

Mitigating the risks posed by digitalization Without doubt, technology is expected to be net value
additive: the economic pie will likely become bigger.
Digital innovation is expected to unlock benefits for both However, some sections of society could get smaller slices
professionals and citizens. However, technology poses risks than they once did, potentially exacerbating already rising
when it takes over aspects of work presently performed by levels of inequality.
people. Mitigating the potentially negative societal
consequences of digitalization in Professional Services will The way ahead
be critical. As Paul Virilio, a cultural theorist and philosopher, In a 1962 speech, US President John F. Kennedy declared,
said, “The invention of the ship was also the invention of the “We believe that if men have the talent to invent new
shipwreck". machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to
put those men back to work”. Some governments and parts
Ethics and morality of the private sector are trying to do just that, by finding
Ethical decisions traditionally made by professionals may be innovative ways to create new jobs. They are also piloting
left to machines, which raises important questions. For innovative responses to potential inequality and job losses,
example, predictive algorithms are available that sentencing with universal basic income proposed as a possible solution.
judges can use to score offenders, based on the latter's risk No consensus currently exists on the best way to resolve
of committing future crimes. Society may not be comfortable these issues, but the ever-increasing realization is that
relying on technology to make such significant moral industry, government and civil society must work together to
decisions. This may be a limitation of digitalization in the overcome the skills gap and minimize the societal impacts of
Professional Services industry, and a space that should be technology-driven job losses and growing inequality.
reserved for human judgement.

Case Study: COMPAS – Machines Making Life-or-

Death Decisions

The Correctional Offender Management Profiling for

Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS) is a 137-question test used
to support sentencing decisions in the United States. The
questions cover criminal and parole history, age, employment
status, social life, education level, community ties, drug use
and beliefs. Use of the algorithm has been challenged in
court. In fact, a convict recently appealed his sentence on the
basis that COMPAS violated his due-process rights because
the company making the test, Northpointe, does not reveal
how it weighs the answers to arrive at a risk score. The
convict also challenged COMPAS on the grounds that the
evaluation treats men as representing a higher risk than
women.

A widening skills gap

As technology advances, requirements for skills change
swiftly, making it harder for workers to keep their skills up to
date. According to a recent survey conducted by
ManpowerGroup,59 40% of employers globally report talent
shortages (versus 30% reporting such shortages in 2009).
Research by the World Economic Forum found that by 2020,
across most occupations, more than a third of the most-
sought-after core skill sets will comprise those that are not
considered crucial to jobs today.60 With a short skill cycle,
training and development are becoming critical to address
talent shortages.

Impact on jobs and inequality

John Maynard Keynes, the British economist, coined the
term "technological unemployment" in 1930. He predicted
that technological advances would lead to machines
replacing workers. Analysis by the White House Council of
Economic Advisers suggests that the negative effect of
automation is expected to be greater on lower-wage jobs,
widening the wage gap between less educated and more
educated workers. Automation's impact could be relatively
more pronounced in emerging markets, as most of the large
Professional Services firms have built up workforces there to
do low-cost, routine tasks.
Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry 21
Glossary of Digital Technologies

Technology Description Example

companies

3D-video 3D-video telepresence eases collaboration by providing Microsoft

telepresence disparate parties with a lifelike visual experience, so that
participants perceive themselves to be together in the same
place.

Augmented Augmented reality (AR) is the real-time use of information in Aurasma,

reality the form of text, graphics, audio and other virtual Iryss
applications enhancements integrated with real-world objects, and
presented using a head-mounted display or projected graphic
overlays. This real-world element differentiates AR from virtual
reality. Elements of AR applications are becoming social, and
are increasingly centred on context-aware, location-based
services for mobile devices.

Blockchain/ A blockchain or distributed ledger is a "transaction database" Hyperledger,

distributed shared by all participants in a network. The distributed ledger Ripple
ledgers contains every transaction ever executed between the Labs
participants. With this information, anyone can trace back a
value belonging to any participant at any point in history.

Deep Deep learning is a set of machine-learning algorithms that IBM

learning includes various deep neural network models. An increasingly Watson,
popular variant of neural networks, it has many more than the Kaggle
typical two processing layers. The additional layers make it
possible to identify higher-level abstractions (i.e. features) and
improve classification and prediction accuracy.

E-discovery Electronic discovery (e-discovery) software facilitates FTI

software identifying, collecting, preserving, processing, reviewing, Technology,
analysing and producing electronically stored information to IBM,
meet mandates imposed by common-law or investigative KPMG,
requirements for discovery. The Electronic Discovery Kroll
Reference Model breaks typical e-discovery into a six-step,
nine-process framework.

Heuristic Heuristic automation is knowledge- and analytics-driven. It Aria

automation involves collecting, analysing and applying human- and Networks,
machine-based learning and intelligence to take specific INETCO
automated actions. Systems

Human body Human body augmentation integrates cognitive and physical Cyberdyne,
augmentation improvements with the human body to deliver performance Raytheon
that exceeds normal human limits. Examples of augmentation
include increased physical strength through exoskeletons,
improved perception through sensory transference or
adjustable aids (e.g. a hearing aid with a phone app to
optimize directionality), and enhanced concentration and
learning through electrical stimulation of the brain.

22 Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry

Technology Description Example
companies

Machine Machine learning allows computers to learn from data without GE

learning being explicitly programmed. Supervised learning aims at Intelligent
learning classifications or estimations; unsupervised learning Platforms,
seeks to extract anomalies, patterns and relationships from H2O, IBM,
data via methods such as clustering, reducing dimensions and Microsoft,
estimating density. SAP, SAS

Natural Natural language processing consists of technology IBM

language categories that make human-computer interaction easier and Watson,
processing help people find, understand and act on content existing in Microsoft,
their native language, such as translating, summarizing and Narrative
synthesizing. It also provides the foundation for inferences that Science,
make people more effective, such as finding people most SAS
likely to be experts on a subject, or subjects trending among
their peers.

Smart Smart advisers are a class of smart machines that advise IBM
advisers users about the state of operations, make recommendations Watson,
on the best decisions to take, or give the best answers to IPsoft,
users' questions. Natural language processing is typically Saffron
necessary for advisers to interact with people.

Smart robot A smart robot is a machine with an electromechanical form Google,

factor that can work autonomously in the physical world while iRobot,
learning from its experiences. Smart robots sense conditions Panasonic
in their local environments, recognize and solve basic
problems, and learn how to improve their performance. Some
have a specialized functional form (e.g. warehouse robots),
while others have more general functional forms and/or
humanoid appearances. Because of their sensory capabilities,
smart robots may work alongside people.

Smart A smart workspace creates a connected physical network of Microsoft,

workspace "places and things" that actively interacts with software Oblong,
applications to contextualize people's experience in the digital Prysm
workplace. It leverages the growing digitalization and
programmability of physical objects brought about by the
Internet of Things, enabling organizations to deliver new ways
of working, sharing information and collaborating to improve
workforce efficiency and effectiveness. Any location where
people work can become a smart workspace.

Social A social learning platform is an extension of traditional IBM

learning systems for learning management and learning content (Kenexa),
platform management that incorporates features of social software to Oracle,
support structured social, informal and formal learning SAP
activities. Such a platform enables learners to establish a
social profile that reflects their expertise and interests; to
create, discuss, share and capture learning content; and to
interact with peers in their social networks.

Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry 23

 Technology Description Example
companies

Speech Speech recognition systems convert human speech into text Amazon,
recognition or machine instructions. Apple,
Google,
IBM,
Microsoft

Virtual A virtual personal assistant (VPA) performs some of the Google,

personal functions of a human personal assistant. With the user's IBM,
assistant permission, it observes user content and behaviour, builds Microsoft,
and maintains data models (from which it draws inferences x.ai
about people, content and contexts), predicts users' needs,
builds trust and acts autonomously on the user's behalf. VPAs
make everyday tasks easier (by prioritizing emails, for
example), and generally boost their users' efficiency.

Virtual reality Virtual reality provides a computer-generated 3D environment NextVR,

that surrounds a user and responds to the individual's actions Oculus VR,
in a natural way, usually through immersive head-mounted Presagis,
displays. Gesture recognition provides hand and body Sony,
tracking, and haptic (or touch-sensitive) feedback may be WorldViz
incorporated. Room-based systems provide a 3D experience
for multiple participants; however, they are more limited in
their capability to interact.

24 Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry

Appendix

Defining human capabilities Case studies for augmenting human capabilities

Figure 4 illustrates how digital technologies can augment Figure 4 also includes case studies that illustrate how digital
some human capabilities that professionals rely on to provide technologies can augment professionals' ability to serve their
expertise to clients. The following are definitions for the clients. Some of these case studies are in the main body of
human capabilities included in the figure: this White Paper, with details of the remaining ones here:

THINK Case Study: Project Dreamcatcher

Insight generation Dreamcatcher is a generative design system that enables

The mental action of processing acquired knowledge and manufacturing designers to craft a definition of their design
converting it into valuable outputs using judgement problem through goals and constraints. This information is
Creativity used to synthesize alternative design solutions that meet the
The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, objectives. Designers are able to explore trade-offs between
relationships or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, many alternative approaches and select design solutions for
forms, methods and interpretations manufacture. The Dreamcatcher system allows designers to
Cognition input specific design objectives (e.g. functional requirements,
The process of acquiring knowledge and understanding type of material, manufacturing method, performance criteria,
through thought, experience and the senses cost restrictions). The system evaluates how well the vast
Memory number of designs it generates satisfy these specifications.
The faculty by which the mind stores and remembers The resulting designs are then presented back to the user,
information along with performance data relating to each solution.
Designers are able to evaluate these solutions in real time,
returning at any point to the problem definition to adjust goals
DO and constraints to generate new results.

Communication Case Study: Rembrandt

The act or process of using words, sounds, signs or
behaviours to express or exchange information, or to express A new "Rembrandt" painting was revealed this year – a mere
ideas and thoughts 350 years after the artist's death. Researchers taught an AI
Presentation programme to paint this new Rembrandt after analysing more
The activity of showing, describing or explaining something than 300 of his paintings. Using a 3D printer, they were even
to a group of people able to recreate his exact brush strokes. It took almost 18
Organization months to produce the computer-generated, 3D-printed
The act or process of putting the different parts of something painting.
in a certain order so that they can be found or used easily
Case Study: IBM Watson

FEEL A cognitive computing platform that understands data, IBM

Watson is able to reason and can learn at scale. Watson
Relationship building analyses unstructured data including news articles, research
The act of building connections between two parties reports, social media posts and enterprise system data. It
Empathy then evaluates all possible meanings and determines what is
The ability to understand and share the feelings of another being asked. Based on supporting evidence and the quality
Instinct of information found, it presents solutions. In 2011, Watson
A natural or inherent aptitude, impulse or capacity answered questions on the quiz show, Jeopardy!, while
Appearance competing against two former winners of the show, and won
The way that someone or something looks the first-place prize of $1 million. In February 2013, IBM
announced that the Watson software system's first
commercial application would be in partnership with health
insurance companies. The system would be deployed to help
evaluate the appropriateness and medical need for various
lung cancer treatments. Watson has also found a niche in the
legal sector, in the guise of Ross, the first artificially intelligent
lawyer.

Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry 25

Case Study: DeepMind information online and fill in forms, guiding users through a
chat feature on their computer screens. Any questions that
DeepMind, a British artificial intelligence company, was Amelia cannot answer will be referred to a human colleague.
founded in September 2010 and acquired by Google four Accenture and IPsoft are collaborating on an Accenture
years later. DeepMind’s goal is to "solve intelligence" by Amelia practice, designed to accelerate client adoption of AI,
combining "the best techniques from machine learning and with a view to improving business outcomes and creating
systems neuroscience to build powerful general-purpose new growth opportunities.
learning algorithms".61 DeepMind is trying to formalize
intelligence, not only to implement it in machines, but also to Case Study: BeamPro
further understand the human brain. The company made
headlines in 2016 after its AlphaGo programme achieved a The BeamPro telepresence robot allows users to interact
landmark victory in the board game, Go, against one of the remotely by coupling high-end video and audio with the
world’s best human players. DeepMind is working with the freedom to move around a space. It consists of an LCD
National Health Service in the United Kingdom to analyse screen, two wide-angle cameras and an array of six
medical data and find ways to improve how illnesses are microphones on a wheeled base that can move around a
diagnosed and treated. room at walking pace. By offering face-to-face interaction on
the move, it facilitates effective presentation and
Case Study: Robo Brain communication around the globe.

Robo Brain is a large-scale computational system that learns Case Study: Magic Leap
from publicly available internet resources, computer
simulations and real-life robot trials. It collects everything Focusing on AR, Magic Leap promises that "the world is your
related to robotics into a comprehensive and interconnected screen”, and that its experience will allow the user to do
knowledge base. At the same time, it learns concepts by anything normally done on another phone or computer –
searching the web; interprets natural language text, images what it terms "hyperpersonal computing". Magic Leap’s initial
and videos; and has the ability to watch humans with its areas of focus include creating apps and experiences for
sensors and learn from interacting with them. It stores this gaming, entertainment and communication. To become a
vast trove of information within itself, rather like a human brain viable alternative to smartphones or laptops, Magic Leap
would. Applications include prototyping for robotics research, would need to create a groundbreaking input and control
household robots and self-driving cars. Robo Brain is a method for the user. Development is still at an early stage.
multi-university, open-source effort, addressing research
challenges in various domains: machine learning, perception Case Study: Sophia
and large-scale data processing.
A robot that resembles a human woman with rubbery skin,
Case Study: Quill (Narrative Science) Sophia can make numerous natural-looking facial
expressions, using cameras in her eyes. This eerily realistic
Powered by AI, Quill is Narrative Science’s advanced natural robot is designed to potentially work in healthcare, education
language generation platform for enterprise organizations that or customer service. The aim is for Sophia to be as
goes beyond reporting the numbers – it creates fluently conscious, creative and capable as any human; according to
written, meaningful narratives for different audiences. her inventor, Hanson Robotics, this will be achievable in the
Advances in data visualization and data science are creating next 20 years.
powerful insights. Quill’s strength is to convert these insights
into easily understandable explanations and narratives. Quill Case Study: Pepper
immediately adds value to data by identifying the most
relevant information and conveying it through professional, Pepper is a robot capable of identifying the most important
conversational language. By efficiently communicating the human emotions: joy, sadness, anger or surprise. It can
key points buried in data, the platform makes it easier for interpret a person's facial expressions, tone of voice, words
users to understand and act on these insights. According to used and body language. Aggregating and analysing this
Narrative Science, the Associated Press uses Quill to information enables the robot to determine whether its human
automate the writing of earnings reports, enabling the interlocutor is in a good or bad mood. Business uses for
company to expand cost-effectively the number of firms it Pepper include transforming customer experience with
covers (from 300 to 4,400), while simultaneously freeing up personalized services. Since 2014, about 2,000 Pepper
journalists to focus on more complex tasks. robots have been deployed in the SoftBank shops in Japan.
Nestlé Japan began integrating Pepper into its Nescafé stores
Case Study: Amelia in December 2014, and plans to equip about 1,000 stores
with Pepper to inform customers about products and
IPsoft, which specializes in autonomic and cognitive services.
technologies, describes its product, "Amelia", as a cognitive
agent that “can take on a wide variety of service desk roles  
and customer experience”.62 Enfield Council, in north London,
has recently agreed to deploy Amelia to help with its
customer service. The AI programme will be used to
participate in thousands of conversations at once and answer
queries in a human way. Its role will be to help residents find
26 Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry
Acknowledgements

The World Economic Forum would like to acknowledge and John Romeo, Managing Partner, North America, Oliver
extend its sincere gratitude to a broad community of Wyman Group (MMC)
contributors across Partner companies, technology start- Marcus Sawyerr, Global Head, Digital Innovation, Adecco
ups, academics and experts. Group
Erik T.H. Scheer, Partner and Member of the Executive
Digital Transformation Initiative Project Team
Committee, Baker & McKenzie
Contributors
Jon Aarons, Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting David Shalders, Director, Group Operations and Technology,
Willis Towers Watson
Alwin Brunner, Chief Information Officer, Heidrick & Struggles
Léonor Siney, Director, Global Media Communications,
Oliver Campbell, Global Head, Client Service Solutions, Adecco Group
Clifford Chance
Richard Susskind, Advisory Board Member and Visiting
Andrew Chamberlain, Chief Economist, Glassdoor Professor, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
John Dzrik, President, Global Risk and Specialties, Marsh Mansi Vadodaria, Head, Financial Planning Group, Tata
Dan Elron, Managing Partner, Corporate Strategy, Innovation Consultancy Services
and Technology, Accenture Fiona Vickers, Senior Client Partner, Lead Digital in EMEA,
Eric Gervet, Partner, A.T. Kearney Korn Ferry
Anthony Goldbloom, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Bas Boris Visser, Global Head, Innovation and Business
Kaggle Change, Clifford Chance
Mark Goodburn, Chairman, Global Advisory, KPMG Chris Wanstrath, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder,
International GitHub
Alison Gross, Global Director, Strategic Engagement, Willis Gregory Willis, Chief Information Officer, FTI Consulting
Towers Watson Anja Wittrup, Director, Global Corporate Affairs, Bain &
Charlotte Hallward, Manager, External Communications, Company
McKinsey & Company Sigal Zami, Vice-Chairman, PwC
Charlotte Harding, Director, Research, Mercer (MMC) Adam Zuckerman, Employee Engagement Practice Leader,
Tamsin Hussey, Senior Digital Strategist, Infosys Willis Towers Watson
Karim Jalbout, Head, Digital Europe and Big Data, Egon
Zehnder
Tim Jones, Global Head of Management Consulting, KPMG
International
Stephane Kasriel, Chief Executive Officer, Upwork
K. Ananth Krishnan, Chief Technology Officer, Tata
Consultancy Services
Paul Lewis, Partner, Co-Head of Innovation, Linklaters
Nick McKee, Head, Strategy and Corporate Development,
Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC)
Jory Marino, Vice-Chairman, Heidrick & Struggles
Xavier Mesnard, Lead Partner, Strategic Operations Practice,
A.T. Kearney
Rich Pearson, Senior Vice-President, Marketing and
Categories, Upwork
Massimo Portincaso, Director, Global Marketing, The Boston
Consulting Group
Michael Poulos, Managing Director, President, Marsh Risk
Consulting and Head of Client Advisory Services, Marsh
Jonas Prising, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
ManpowerGroup
Anne Pullum, Head, Strategy, Willis Towers Watson
Satya Ramaswamy, Vice-President and Global Head, Digital
Business, Tata Consultancy Services

Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry 27

Contributors

World Economic Forum

Mark Spelman, Co-Head, System Initiative on Shaping the
Future of Digital Economy and Society
Sonja Patscheke, Head, Professional Services
Bruce Weinelt, Head, Digital Transformation
Reema Siyam, Project Lead, Digital Transformation Initiative
Kirsten Williams, Project Specialist, Digital Transformation
Initiative

Accenture
Trevor Gruzin, Accenture Strategy, APAC Lead
Harshdeep Jolly, Accenture Strategy and World Economic
Forum Secondee
Anand Shah, Accenture Strategy, Digital Transformation
Initiative Engagement Partner
Arushi Chopra, Accenture Strategy

28 Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry

Endnotes

1
Burns, Edgar, “How does a short history of professions help 18
Deloitte, Developing legal talent: Stepping into the future law
us think about professionalisation today?”, Conference Paper: firm, 2016.
14th Australia Studies Conference in China, ResearchGate,
2014. 19
Gartner, Understanding Gartner’s Hype Cycles, 2015.
2
In this White Paper, Professional Services include legal,
accounting, consulting and human capital firms.
20
Susskind and Susskind, op. cit.

3
UK Office for National Statistics,170 Years of Industrial
21
US Internal Revenue Service, 2015.
Change across England and Wales, 2011.
22
Addady, Michal, “Meet Ross, the World’s First
4
US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, 2015. Robot Lawyer”, Fortune, 12 May 2016, http://fortune.
com/2016/05/12/robot-lawyer/.
5
PwC, What are Professional Services?
23
Legal IT Insider, “Deloitte Insight: Over 100,000 legal roles to
6
Planning Commission, Government of India, Sector-wise be automated”, 16 March 2016, http://www.legaltechnology.
contribution of GDP of India, 2015. com/latest-news/deloitte-insight-100000-legal-roles-to-be-
automated/.
7
Susskind, R. and D. Susskind, The Future of the Professions:
How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts. 24
Sanghani, Radhika, “Technology leads to 84pc increase in
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. office productivity”, The Telegraph, 22 October 2013, http://
www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10396263/Technology-
8
International Monetary Fund, GDP, 2015. leads-to-84pc-increase-in-office-productivity.html.

9
Siemens company website, https://www.siemens.com/global/
25
Gartner, Understanding Gartner›s Hype Cycles, 2015.
en/home.html.
26
Intuit, 7.6 Million People in On-Demand Economy by 2020
10
Lipman, Keith, “Insourcing and the problem of value to price”, [Press Release], 13 August 2015.
Inside Counsel, 23 February 2016, http://www.insidecounsel. 27
Susskind and Susskind, op. cit.
com/2016/02/23/insourcing-and-the-problem-of-value-to-
price.
28
Dinham, Peter, “KPMG, IBM team up to apply cognitive tech
Grossman, Rhys, “The industries that are being disrupted the
11 to professional services”, ITWire, 30 June 2016, http://www.
most by digital”, Harvard Business Review, 21 March 2016. itwire.com/it-industry-news/market/73587-kpmg,-ibm-team-
up-to-apply-cognitive-tech-to-professional-services.html.
Gartner, Market Share Analysis: Consulting Services,
12

Worldwide, 2011.
29
Accenture, “Accenture Open Innovation”, https://www.
accenture.com/us-en/technology-insight-open-innovation.
Gartner, Market Share Analysis: Consulting Services,
13

Worldwide, 2015.
30
Susskind and Susskind, op. cit.

14
“Accounting jobs most at risk from automation, warns PwC”,
31
Popper, Nathaniel, “The Robots are Coming for Wall Street”,
Accountants Daily, http://www.accountantsdaily.com.au/ The New York Times Magazine, 25 February 2016, http://www.
latest-news/17-news/8188-accounting-jobs-most-at-risk-from- nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/the-robots-are-coming-for-
automation-warns-pwc, 2015. wall-street.html?_r=0.

15
Knowledge@Wharton, “How Professional Services Can
32
X.ai company website, https://x.ai.
Disrupt Its Way Out of Automation”, 5 November 2015, http://
knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/how-professional-
33
O’Reilly, Lara, “People are sending flowers and chocolate
services-can-disrupt-its-way-out-of-automation/. to thank personal assistant ‘Amy Ingram’ — what they don’t
realize is she’s a robot”, Business Insider, 10 July 2015,
16
Deloitte, Developing legal talent: Stepping into the future law http://www.businessinsider.com/amy-ingram-personal-
firm, 2016. assistant-2015-7.

17
Kalia, Jaishree, “Robot law: Deloitte estimates automation to
34
Ibid.
cut legal sector jobs by 39% over the next two decades”, Legal
Business, 16 March 2016, http://www.legalbusiness.co.uk/
35
“X.ai raises $23 million more for Amy, the virtual assistant”,
index.php/lb-blog-view/5713-robot-law-deloitte-estimates- Internet Dealbook, 12 April 2016.
automation-to-cut-legal-sector-jobs-by-39-over-the-next-two-
decades.

Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry 29

 According to Stephane Kasriel, Chief Executive Officer,
36 55
World Economic Forum, Digital Transformation of Industries:
Upwork. Digital Enterprise, White Paper, 2016.
56
Accenture Technology Vision, People First: The primacy of
37
Zillman, Claire, “PwC Wants To Use ‘Gig Economy’ Workers
people in the digital age, 2016.
to Staff Projects for Its Clients”, Fortune, 7 March 2016, http://
fortune.com/2016/03/07/pwc-freelance-marketplace/.
57
World Economic Forum, op. cit.
38
Accenture, The Impact of Technology on the Future of Work:
From Looking Digital to Being Digital, 2016. 58
Gibb, Samuel, “Chatbot lawyer overturns 160,000 parking
tickets in London and New York”, The Guardian, 28 June
39
Gartner, Five Principles for Leading an Agile Culture, 2015. 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/28/
chatbot-ai-lawyer-donotpay-parking-tickets-london-new-york.
40
Hifarva, Arra Dianne, “Check Out Microsoft’s Vision of A
Future Without Mice and Keyboards”, Futurism, 28 June 2016,
59
ManpowerGroup, 2016-2017 Talent Shortage Survey, 2016.
http://futurism.com/check-out-microsofts-vision-of-a-future-
without-mice-and-keyboards/. 60
World Economic Forum, The Future of Jobs, 2016.

41
Lawson, Stephen, “IBM and Cisco will make Watson into a 61
Startupxplore website, https://startupxplore.com/en/startups/
virtual workmate”, Computerworld, 1 July 2016, http://www. deepmind.
computerworld.ph/tech/applications/ibm-and-cisco-will-make-
watson-into-a-virtual-workmate/. 62
IPsoft website, http://www.ipsoft.com/amelia/.

42
Jagnow, Rob, “Daydream Labs: animating 3D objects in VR”,
Google Developers Blog, 28 June 2016, https://developers.
googleblog.com/2016/06/daydream-labs-animating-3d-
objects-in-vr.html.

43
What are Professional Services?, PwC.

44
Belton, Padraig, “How ‘robo recruiters’ could affect your job
prospects”, BBC, 27 May 2016, http://www.bbc.com/news/
business-36370340.

Weber, Lauren, “Can This Algorithm Find Hires of a Certain

45

Race?”, The Wall Street Journal Blog, 30 April 2014.

46
Agnew, Harriet, “Technology transforms Big Four hiring
practices”, Financial Times, 9 May 2016, https://www.ft.com/
content/d5670764-15d2-11e6-b197-a4af20d5575e.

47
Ibid.

48
Accenture, The gig experience: Unleashing the potential of
your talent and business, 2016.

49
Ibid.

50
Ibid.

51
Silverberg, David, “The company that pays its staff to
sleep”, BBC, 30 June 2016, http://www.bbc.com/news/
business-36641119.

52
Accenture, Is performance management performing?, 2016.

53
Ibid.

54
Accenture, Managers and machines, unite!, 2015.

30 Digital Transformation Initiative: Professional Services Industry

The World Economic Forum,
committed to improving
the state of the world, is the
International Organization for
Public-Private Cooperation.

The Forum engages the

foremost political, business
and other leaders of society
to shape global, regional
and industry agendas.

World Economic Forum

91–93 route de la Capite
CH-1223 Cologny/Geneva
Switzerland
Tel.: +41 (0) 22 869 1212
Fax: +41 (0) 22 786 2744
[email protected]
www.weforum.org