Raphael Bohne
Research expert covering professional services
Consulting industry in the UK - statistics & facts
The consulting industry in the United Kingdom is a multifaceted ecosystem that has architected change in the worlds of business and government. It extended itself into the outsourcing of public services by the UK government that has included responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS facility management, and asylum seeker accommodation. These are services that affect both the public and private sector and, as a result, have created profitable and influential institutions.
With the above points considered, the size, scale, and influence of the consulting industry in the UK cannot be underplayed. The reliance of the UK government on many firms when it comes to policymaking decisions, combined with the dominance of the Big Four when it comes to the auditing of other hugely influential companies and organizations means that consultancies, at least for the foreseeable future, are here to stay.
Technological advancements and the professional services industry
Artificial intelligence (AI) usage has begun to take its effect on the professional services industry. The current use cases of AI within consulting firms in the UK have ranged from the spam filtering of emails to visual content generation like images and animations. Comparatively, the main purposes of using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) at law firms have gone from simple curiosity at one end of the spectrum, to producing legal texts at the other. With the introduction of such industry-changing technology comes anxiety surrounding the future of work and potential job lay-offs. When it came to employee perspectives on whether AI will have an impact on their professional careers in the next five years, some feared being replaced by it altogether, whereas others considered the notion of AI increasing their productivity and efficiency. Overall, however, the industry outlook seems to be positive about AI, despite the mixed bag of opinions about this technological advancement.The influence of the Big Four in the UK
The most influential and profitable consulting firms - Deloitte, KPMG, EY, and PwC - are known as the Big Four. Together, these four companies had more-or-less the whole market share of S&P 500 audit fees in 2022. The Big Four also play a sizable role in the United Kingdom. The revenue of Deloitte in the UK alone was roughly 5.6 billion British pounds in the last year, making it the second-most profitable consulting firm in the country behind PwC. The total workforce of KPMG in the UK came in at the lowest out of the four consultancies, with close to 16,000 employees from their last count. PwC had the largest total workforce, with an employee count of more than double that of KPMG.With the above points considered, the size, scale, and influence of the consulting industry in the UK cannot be underplayed. The reliance of the UK government on many firms when it comes to policymaking decisions, combined with the dominance of the Big Four when it comes to the auditing of other hugely influential companies and organizations means that consultancies, at least for the foreseeable future, are here to stay.
