A key industry that helps businesses and the country to grow

The year 2024 will be considered another year of growth for consultancy, following the record year 2023 (+13.7 per cent). This time, growth is expected to be around 10 per cent (to the tune of seven billion euros) and early forecasts for 2025 indicate a further increase of between eight and 10 per cent. Interestingly, over the last 10 years, the consultancy sector has grown considerably. It is a very concentrated market, with large companies (with more than 50 professionals) growing at a much faster pace than small ones. This is an industry that has always been a useful support to every sector of the supply chain, with an ever-increasing demand from the market.

This strong growth in demand for consultancy was mainly driven by the Public Administration, which, also in relation to the support required on Pnrr project management, was the segment that grew the most in the last five years: +70% compared to 2019. Also in Energy & Utilities, the international criticalities of the energy supply chain and their impact on operators in the sector have driven a strong increase in demand for consultancy: +60% compared to 2019. Both of these cases highlight how consultancy grows most where the country system faces major challenges.

Interdisciplinary and continuous training, regulation of professional practices, development of research for innovative solutions, promotion of social and ethical responsibility, encouraging sustainable practices and principles of equity and justice are the focus of consultants. Doing services means doing industry. And services have a productivity rate 2.5 times higher than industry. Consultants can therefore make a fundamental contribution to the much hoped-for economic recovery. No other industry today is able to guarantee such continuous updating and such cutting-edge performance. Consultants produce intellectual capital with a high level of expertise, the same expertise that companies or client administrations need.

That said, it must be considered, however, that industry and financial services, although not reaching the peaks mentioned above, are still the two sectors that most require long-term consultancy support. Marketing, risk management and strategy are the three areas of specialisation that have grown the most since 2019, by 64%, 55% and 51% respectively. Behind this market orientation, it is not difficult to read how clients ask consultancy to support them in building a solid development and client service path, with a very strong focus on risks and their active management. In all three of these areas - as well as in the industry as a whole - digital transformation has been a catalyst for new projects: from digital marketing to digital strategy, from change management in digital projects to digital operations/Industria 4.0.

Into this decidedly positive market picture comes the uncertainty surrounding the impact that a rapid penetration of generative artificial intelligence may have. At the moment, it is not clear how quickly it will change project activities and what impact it will have on aspects such as the productivity levels of consultancy activities or the quality of deliverables and, above all, it is still uncertain how it will impact the assessments that clients will give on the added value of consultancy proposals. Given the significance of the changes taking place, Assoconsult has decided to flank its Annual Report with a periodic survey focusing on the impact that generative artificial intelligence will have on the sector, with the aim of monitoring the many challenges and, hopefully, the many opportunities that this new technology will bring. Assoconsult and its associates, by vocation at the side of companies to help them in their processes of transformation and continuous innovation, also aspire to be an authoritative point of reference in this process of change created by new-generation digital tools.