The opportunity is not for Accenture to become the fifth member of the Big Four but rather to challenge their position as trusted enterprise advisers by making independent AI assurance a critical component of enterprise transformation. The strategic risk is that, without credible independence, Accenture Assurance would become another consulting offering wrapped in the language of trust.
Infosys hosted more than 200 clients, partners, analysts and advisers during its flagship event, Infosys Americas Confluence 2026. The packed agenda included Partner Day and Analyst Day tracks, client stories, partner presentations and Living Labs demos of both Infosys- and partner-developed solutions and services. AI dominated the agenda, but the conversations were notably different than those at Confluence 2025. Last year, Infosys and its clients largely focused on the prerequisites for enterprise AI adoption, including data readiness, governance, architecture and talent. This year the discussion shifted toward what happens when enterprises actually begin scaling AI; the need to address rising complexity, agent governance, token economics, cybersecurity and model choice; and the ever-difficult task of proving business value. Infosys used the event to reinforce its ambition to become a leading enterprise AI services provider, positioning Infosys Topaz — and increasingly Infosys Topaz Fabric — as the enabling layer connecting models, applications, data business processes and partner technologies.
AI promises productivity improvements by off-loading repeatable, mundane tasks to algorithms and robots. If an IT services company or consultancy can do things faster with AI and automation, clients can reasonably expect their time-and-materials bill will decline. Accenture, Deloitte, Infosys and all their peers now find themselves — or, really, have found themselves since at least mid-2023 — challenged with managing the cannibalization that their AI investments may be bringing to their traditional IT services.
TBR’s professional services team looks at which trends across IT services, consulting and AI will continue through 2027 and the strategies and business model changes leading companies will adopt in the next year
In late August, TBR met with AltitudeIQ Founder and CEO Acyr da Luz and AltitudeIQ Board Advisor Michael Yadgar to discuss the startup’s proprietary technology, its role within the technology ecosystem, and its potential to disrupt the broader IT services, consulting and AI space. This special report reflects that discussion as well as TBR’s ongoing research and analysis of SAP, IT services companies, consultancies and AI.
HCLTech’s strengths lie in its engineering DNA; entrenched and well-managed client relationships; and extensive alliance partnerships, which include critical technology players and even HCLTech competitors. Playing to those strengths has been one element separating HCLTech from IT services peers in the last few years, especially with respect to profitability. With a suite of AI Advisory Services, the company continues to follow its proven strategy: focus on core values, deliver relentlessly, partner smartly, and expand within an existing client base.
TBR believes Grant Thornton has built a differentiated Oracle practice around senior leadership, direct field access, and focused industry investment, all centered on midmarket clients. Grant Thornton has Oracle breadth without bloat, connecting finance, human capital management (HCM) and supply chain with tax, risk, cyber and industry advisory while keeping experienced leaders close to the work.
Infosys’ opportunity is not simply to sell more AI tools but also to use AI as the reason clients modernize applications, clean data, rethink workflows and consolidate vendors. That positioning matters because buyers remain practical: They want productivity, measurable outcomes and lower operating complexity, not another layer of technology hype.
As consulting continues to evolve due to AI’s influence on business models and day-to-day operations across enterprises, EY’s leaders discussed how the firm is adapting its approach to guide clients through uncertainty and increased speed of change, and introduced featured clients, giving them an opportunity to share their experiences. The client stories emphasized the speed at which they need to navigate market changes and their desire to work with a long-term partner such as EY to guide the transformation as well as to create an ecosystem of vendors that support their end goals. The notion of value was consistent throughout the event, as the firm seeks to reconfirm its positioning in the consulting space despite ongoing market uncertainty about consulting’s future relevance.
Principal Analyst Patrick Heffernan and Principal Analyst Bozhidar Hristov discuss the questions large-scale IT services companies and global management consultancies have about reinventing their business models as they adopt AI-enabled solutions and how TBR can answer those questions with a mix of data and analysis to help clients understand what’s coming next