How AI Can Help Professional Services Firms Elevate Human Expertise

Key Takeaways 

• AI empowers humans to focus on high-value work, not replace them. 
• Professional services firms of all sizes can leverage AI to streamline processes and boost impact. 
• The future of professional services is about humans and AI working together. 

In professional services, knowledge is everything. If your people don’t know their stuff, potential clients have no real reason to hire you. Of course, expertise alone isn’t enough, either. Clients hire you to turn your knowledge into results. Without execution, even the brightest ideas don’t matter.   

As digital tools continue to evolve, professional services firms need to understand where AI actually fits in the flow from expertise to execution. It can’t and shouldn’t replace the humans who hold the knowledge and can use their intuition to implement it effectively. Rather, it should help those humans weigh their choices, boost their efficiency, and improve the quality of the projects they deliver. 

Unlock more meaningful work 

According to Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index Annual Report, 90% of leaders whose organizations use AI agents say they’ve created more opportunities for meaningful work. In other words, AI is freeing up time and energy that was previously spent on tedious box-checking so that it can be used doing the sorts of things you’d list at the top of the job description – and doing them well. As Microsoft Product Lead Anne Nicole reports, 95% of Microsoft Copilot purchases in the first six months of 2025 were expansions, indicating that business leaders want to double down on the productivity benefits AI can provide.  

One professional services company that reaped those benefits is Persistent Systems, a digital engineering and enterprise modernization firm that streamlined its contracts process to the tune of 95% fewer emails and 70% less negotiation time. By using Copilot to develop its own AI assistant, Persistent Systems allowed their modernization experts to bypass the back-and-forth and get right to work.  

Supercharge expertise with AI  

Accounting giant KPMG leveraged AI tools to cut to the chase – while also improving the work itself. The firm used Microsoft Fabric to create a comprehensive and fully integrated analytics solution  that helped them work faster and also helped them tap into their vast databases for deeper and more productive insights. 

Crucially, KPMG did not use this powerful new tool as an excuse to get rid of its human experts. They still need actual people who understand complex international tax codes and can use their knowledge, intuition, and people-skills to help clients feel comfortable as they navigate potentially overwhelming accounting processes. Not even the most knowledgeable tax expert can comb through millions of rows of data on a tight deadline. Now, individual experts can quickly surface insights that previously would have taken entire teams weeks to uncover. Multiply that across the entire firm, and you’ve got a massively increased work capacity that could translate into more – and more successful – business.  

The benefits of AI aren’t reserved for multinational companies. Small- and medium-sized professional services can also do more with less, even if they’re not ready to invest in developing a major AI-powered platform. With products like Copilot, SMBs can quickly build smaller AI solutions to get big results. In one example from the Work Trend Index report, a five-person start-up used AI agents to improve margins by 20%. As the company’s founder put it: “It’s like turning on the nav in your car — suddenly, everything is laid out, and the next move becomes obvious.” 

The future of professional services 

It’s not hard to envision where professional services firms can go from here. According to the Work Trend Index report, an increasing number of business leaders expect their employees to become “agent bosses,” training and managing AI agents as they perform increasingly advanced tasks. For knowledge workers in the professional services realm, that could be especially useful for juggling the diverse needs of their client rosters.  

Imagine a consultant training an AI agent on their own specialized knowledge base, tailoring the agent to specific clients, and deploying it as a resource clients can access instantly and around the clock. When lower-level, non-urgent questions can be answered without a meeting, a phone call, or even an email, the higher-level problems can get all the attention they require.  

At Enavate, we’re positioned to help professional services firms leap into that promising future right now. Our team offers centuries of combined experience with Microsoft ERP solutions, and we know how to get the most out of AI-powered tools and integrations. We’re all about helping our clients help their clients. Reach out today to talk to an expert.