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RNS Number : 7739X  General Assembly (GA)  24 March 2026

Professional Services Firms Bet Big on AI but Skills Gaps Are Holding Them
Back, General Assembly Survey Finds

Most firms have had to abandon at least one AI initiative due to a lack of
skills in the past year

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire (https://www.accessnewswire.com/) / March 24,
2026 / Most professional services firms (61%) have had to abandon at least one
AI initiative in the past year due to a lack of internal skills, with more
than a third (35%) abandoning multiple initiatives, according to new research
(https://pr.report/k0p1) from General Assembly, the global leader in practical
AI skills training and an LHH company.

"Professional services firms face a capability paradox," said Ash Khanna, Head
of Professional Services at General Assembly. "AI can accelerate output, but
it can't replace the judgment that comes from doing the hard work. We're
seeing junior talent generate recommendations faster than ever, but struggle
to defend the reasoning behind them. Firms must invest in the durable human
skills that make AI output credible and defensible. Upskilling can't be an
afterthought; it has to be as central to a firm's AI strategy as the
technology itself."

General Assembly surveyed 258 leaders with director and above titles at
consulting, accounting and legal firms with at least 1,000 employees in the
United States and the United Kingdom in February. The research found that most
firms are investing in AI that augments human capabilities and drives
efficiencies, but they need to invest more into upskilling the professional
services workforce (https://pr.report/k0p2) to achieve their AI ambitions.

 

Key Findings

·      Professional services firms prioritize human augmentation: 70%
said their AI strategies rely on efficiency, while only 30% are focused on
building AI-first products. Less than one in five (17%) are moving toward a
model where AI agents do the heavy lifting, while 73% are keeping headcount
flat or hiring more people to scale. However, 57% of consulting firms said
they would invest more in AI-first products and solutions than human
augmentation in 2026.

·      AI drives pricing pressures: Roughly 8 in 10 firms (79%) said AI
is changing pricing conversations, with 42% saying clients are questioning
their pricing model while 37% are already proactively addressing it.
Consulting firms felt pricing pressures most acutely.

·      Leaders are over-confident on AI: While 88% say their workforce
is very to extremely prepared to meet leadership's AI ambitions, and 94%
believe they are ahead of their clients on AI adoption, only 26% feel "great"
about selling their firm's AI solutions (while 71% feel just "OK" due to AI
not necessarily delivering as promised).

·      Projects abandoned amid a mounting skills gap: US firms (65%) and
consulting firms (73%) were most likely to have abandoned an AI initiative due
to a lack of skills. Meanwhile, half of respondents said their partner
compensation model makes it harder to invest in AI, a particular pain point
for 57% of larger firms with 5,000+ employees.

·      Partners lack AI skills: More than half (55%) said partners are
least prepared to use AI effectively, a problem felt most acutely by 74% of
legal firm respondents. By contrast, associates and analysts were most likely
to be seen as best prepared, by 44% of respondents. The biggest skills gap was
change management and stakeholder communication, selected by 58% of
respondents, followed by prompting and using gen AI tools in daily work (31%),
AI governance, risk and compliance (30%) and translating client problems into
AI use cases (28%).

·      New roles emerge: Most respondents (63%) said junior roles will
evolve with different responsibilities and skill sets. And in the next 12
months, firms plan to hire for new, AI-centric roles like integrity layer
leads (73%), workflow engineers (47%) and agent orchestrators (42%).

"Producing work is becoming a commodity, and the premium now is on
accountability and judgment," said Khanna. "The firms that thrive will be the
ones that help mid-level professionals-historically the QA layer between
juniors and partners-reinvent themselves as workflow engineers: people who
take the firm's unique, unscalable human expertise and industrialize it into a
scalable digital asset."

Read more about this research on the General Assembly blog
(https://pr.report/k0p3) .

About General Assembly

General Assembly (GA), an LHH brand, is the leading talent and upskilling
partner that helps individuals and businesses acquire the real skills required
to succeed in an increasingly complex technological era. Founded in 2011 to
make tech-centric jobs accessible to anyone and meet the demand of
fast-growing tech companies, GA evolved into a center of excellence in
training people from all backgrounds to upgrade their practical knowledge of
tech skills now required in every company and in any role. With a global
presence, hands-on instruction, and a passionate alumni community, GA gives
learners 360-degree support as they take the next step in their career
journey. General Assembly is part of LHH, the professional talent solutions
arm of The Adecco Group, the world's leading talent advisory and solutions
company. GA matches the right talent to business needs. All day, every day: GA
puts real skills to work.

PR Contact

Anna Rice

anna.rice@generalassemb.ly

SOURCE: General Assembly (GA)

 

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