More consultants look to invest in digital technology as AI rises in importance

The proportion of consultants saying they will increase spend on digital technology, including AI products, has risen year-on-year from 78% to 84%.

Building’s exclusive annual Top 150 Consultants survey shows digital technology is now the number one spending priority for consultants, followed by improving productivity and investing in skills.

The survey also shows 89% of consultants now consider AI and machine learning to be “extremely” or “very” important to the transformation of their business over the next decade. This is up by one percentage point on the figure for 2024 and 14 percentage points higher than in 2023.

>> Also read: Consultants less positive about economy than a year ago

>> Just 12% of consultants think the Labour government is doing a good job for the built environment

An analysis detailing consultants’ efficiencies through the application of artificial intelligence will be published on Thursday alongside Building’s full Top 150 Consultants rankings, analysis and comment.

Building’s annual Top 150 Consultants sees the largest firms ranked by UK fee income, with readers also able to sort the companies by other metrics including staff levels and offices.

We will be publishing additional top 50 ranking tables for engineers, architects, project managers and surveyors.

A full analysis of consultants’ views on the economy, including a ranking of their priorities for the government and full commentary on the Labour government’s performance, will also be published on Thursday.

We also have a deep dive into the results of our sentiment survey, including firms’ economic sentiment, fee income breakdown and spending priorities.