Technology and digital drive growth in the consulting market

In 2024, the turnover of management consulting in Italy could easily exceed seven billion euros, according to data collected by Assoconsult, thanks to a growth of about 10% on the 6.6 billion euros recorded in 2023. This upward trend is also due to the boost provided by companies specialising in information technology, which account for around 40% of the overall turnover in this sector. Practically every second company relies on consulting professionals to initiate digital-related innovation projects, and this need is particularly felt by the industrial world and the financial services sector (which together accounted for almost 60% of the overall consulting market last year).

The IT consultancy market has evolved rapidly in recent years, fuelled by the digital transformation of companies and the progressive development of three technological strands in particular: first cloud computing, then cybersecurity and now artificial intelligence. Technologies and innovations that are drastically changing the way companies operate, pushing them to review strategies and processes (as well as infrastructures) in order to remain competitive, and that have also shaped the skills of those who bring them into companies through consulting. If we take the phenomenon of the moment, i.e. Ia, the role played by consulting companies is crucial, especially in terms of identifying concrete use cases for the application of technology and the implementation of scalable and sustainable solutions. The capacities of machine learning algorithms and generative artificial intelligence tools are becoming a key transformational element for many organisations to optimise processes and make decision flows more efficient, and in this perspective the hand of consulting firms is making itself felt not only in accompanying technical choices tout court, but also in helping companies navigate through the ethical and regulatory risks associated with Ia, starting with respect for privacy. It is certainly no coincidence, then, that the global consulting market linked to artificial intelligence is booming and is set to grow (according to a recent report by Grand View Research) at a compound annual rate of 40 per cent until 2030, reaching a value of around USD 60 billion by the end of the decade. Less bombastic, but nonetheless noteworthy, are the development trends in the cloud computing and cybersecurity sectors, where the worldwide increases on a multi-year basis are 24% and 20% (data are from MarketsandMarkets and Fortune Business Insights), for an estimated turnover of more than $42 billion by 2027 and around $51 billion by 2030, respectively.

The digital technology consulting business is also travelling at a brisk pace in Italy, despite some economic and industrial specificities peculiar to our country that could slow down its pace. In artificial intelligence, for which an acceleration in terms of adoption by small and medium-sized enterprises is expected, turnover including consulting services and implementation of solutions is estimated (by Statista analysts) to be in the order of four billion euros at the end of 2026, compared to 1.9 billion in 2022. Less pronounced, on the other hand, are the development dynamics in the cloud and cybersecurity, two technologies that, although mature, still have a lot of room for development in terms of application, especially in the fabric of SMEs. And it is in this area that new opportunities are opening up for consultants specialising in digital transformation at the level of IT infrastructures and in cybersecurity and risk management solutions. In general, the tech consultancy market is booming and is fuelled by the increasing digitalisation of businesses and the need to respond to the challenges posed by technological innovation. Challenges that revolve, once again, around the availability of skills and highly qualified professionals.