Professional Services Firms Pass AI Gains to Clients as Discounts

CINCINNATI, Oct. 6, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- Vecteris, a firm that helps professional services companies productize their services, has announced that firms billing on time-and-materials are now passing AI efficiency gains to clients as automatic discounts. This development comes as AI adoption in professional services has nearly doubled in a year, according to a 2026 report from Thomson Reuters.

Nicole Merrill, CEO of Vecteris, recommends that professional services firms start with an urgent and expensive client problem, define the outcome and scope of an engagement that solves it, and then test value-based pricing through a single paid pilot. Merrill notes that while AI has significantly reduced delivery times, firms must find a way to replace the lost billable revenue.

Merrill cautions that switching to a fixed fee does not solve the problem on its own. A fixed fee with an open-ended scope moves the risk of scope creep from the client to the firm. Similarly, a fixed fee built from estimated hours keeps the price tied to effort rather than to the result the client receives. Instead, Vecteris recommends a four-step pilot firms can run this quarter:

1. Choose one recurring, well-defined service that solves an urgent and expensive client problem, and avoid the firm's largest or most politically sensitive one. 2. Define what the client receives, how success will be measured, and what is excluded. 3. Set the price using four inputs: the firm's strategy, the client's willingness to pay, the full cost of delivery, and the cost of credible market alternatives. 4. Run a paid pilot with trusted clients, then compare the outcome, delivery effort, and client response with the original projections.

The Vecteris CEO also notes that professional services firms should take the Productize Maturity Diagnostic to assess their readiness to move away from time-based revenue. The firm's clients include CBRE, Korn Ferry, Mercer, and Euromonitor, and it is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.

According to a 2026 report from Thomson Reuters, organization-wide AI use nearly doubled in a year, from 22% in 2025 to 40% in 2026. Corporate clients now expect their outside firms to use AI to improve the quality of their deliverables, but few say their firms are delivering those improvements. In the Future of Professionals report, 78% of corporate clients said AI-enabled quality improvements are very important or essential, yet just 6% said most of their providers deliver them.

The rise in AI adoption and client expectations has created a challenge for professional services firms. By passing AI efficiency gains to clients as discounts, firms can mitigate the loss of billable hours while still delivering high-quality results. The key is to find the right balance between cost savings and client satisfaction through a structured pilot program.