State of the SI Market 2025: The Race to Lead in AI-Enabled Consulting

The SI market is undergoing a dynamic shift, driven by strong enterprise demand for digital transformation and rapid advancements in Generative AI. Industry leaders like Accenture, IBM, EY, and Deloitte are heavily investing in AI-powered capabilities to enhance service delivery and modernize ERP implementations.

While some firms face pressure on bookings and are streamlining operations, the overall market momentum reflects a clear race to lead in AI-enabled consulting, making it crucial for clients to critically assess how these capabilities are integrated into vendor proposals.

Below represents a summary on each of the industry leaders’ recent earnings reports, along with recent public announcements for non-publicly traded firms in the SI market.

Accenture: Reinventing Services Through an AI-First Model

Accenture reported strong Q3 results with revenue of $17.7B, reflecting 7.7% year-over-year growth, and raised its full-year revenue growth forecast to 6–7%. The vendor also updated their EPS outlook from $12.77 to $12.89. Despite the solid topline performance, new bookings fell short of expectations, contributing to a 7% decline in share price following the report. However, Generative AI bookings reached $1.5B, underscoring sustained enterprise demand for AI-powered services.

In a significant strategic move, Accenture announced the formation of a new business unit called “Reinvention Services,” effective September 1, 2025. This unit will consolidate its Strategy and Consulting, Technology, Song, and Operations services into a single, AI-focused delivery organization.

The new group will be led by Manish Sharma, former CEO of the Americas, with John Walsh stepping into Sharma’s prior role. According to CEO Julie Sweet, the restructuring is intended to make Accenture “the most AI-enabled, client-focused professional services company in the world,” positioning the firm to deliver GenAI-powered transformations at greater speed and scale.

Although their report did not provide detailed insight into ERP implementation performance, the integration of services under Reinvention Services signals a clear intention to embed AI more deeply into ERP and transformation engagements. This focus is especially relevant for clients looking to accelerate automation and data-driven decision-making across core operations.

While there were no confirmed layoffs in Q3, the leadership restructuring and new operating model point to an ongoing effort to streamline service delivery and optimize for AI scalability in response to rising client demand.

IBM: Driving ERP Insights with Watsonx and Hybrid Cloud

IBM’s Q2 earnings revealed revenue of $16.98B (+8% YoY) and an adjusted EPS of $2.80, both of which surpassed expectations. The company raised its full-year free cash flow outlook to over $13.5B, signaling confidence in its hybrid cloud and Gen AI strategies. Consulting revenue grew to $5.31B (+3% YoY), recovering from a stagnant Q1 and driven by enterprise demand for digital transformation and tech consulting.

On the Gen AI front, IBM’s book of business hit $7.5B, with 80% from Consulting and 20% from Software, highlighting a strong enterprise uptake of the Watsonx platform. Watsonx is increasingly embedded in ERP environments, enabling AI-driven insights for supply chain optimization and financial forecasting. To accelerate AI adoption, IBM launched Watsonx AI Labs in NYC, and introduced the z17 mainframe, optimized for AI workloads that are important for modernizing legacy systems without major disruption.

IBM also continued its productivity-focused restructuring, cutting ~8,000 roles in Q1, primarily in HR. AI agents now handle routine administrative tasks, reflecting real-world application of their technology in operations.

EY: Scaling Transformation with Human–Machine Collaboration

EY has continued to expand and reshape its Consulting business with a focus on integrated, cross-functional offerings and digital transformation. One major move was the launch of EY Studio+, a global practice that brings together design, marketing, customer experience, data, and technology services. EY Studio+ aims to contribute up to 20% of the consulting business within three years.

Financially, EY maintained steady growth in Consulting, supported by rising demand for business model reinvention and digital enablement. While Generative AI remains a key pillar, highlighted by the EY.ai platform and new AI agent deployments across tax and assurance services, EY positioned these technologies as enablers of broader productivity and service innovation, not replacements. CEO Janet Truncale emphasized growth and human-machine collaboration, signaling EY’s intent to scale headcount and capabilities alongside its tech investments.

Deloitte: Embedding AI to Power Execution and Efficiency

Deloitte has continued elevating its consulting capabilities with a strong emphasis on enterprise transformation, talent development, and strategic alliances. The firm’s “2025 Chief Transformation Officer Study” showed that organizations are making transformation a top priority, increasing budgets, strengthening leadership, and emphasizing execution and change management.

Regionally, Deloitte Australia rolled out its in‑house Gen AI platform MyAssist to 12,000 users, streamlining workflows across audit, tax, and planning with tools like business‑case developers and Statement of Work review assistants, significantly enhancing productivity across client delivery teams.

Meanwhile, in the UK, adoption of the AI assistant PairD among audit professionals surged to 75% usage, reflecting Deloitte’s drive to embed efficiency-enhancing technologies in consulting workflows rather than rely solely on manual effort.

Lastly, Deloitte launched AI Advantage for CFOs, an analytics and insights solution built with AWS and Anthropic, expanding its advisory toolkit in financial management and reinforcing blended tech-plus-industry consulting strengths.

Ready to assess how these shifts in the SI market could impact your transformation strategy? Connect with UpperEdge to discuss how we can help you navigate vendor dynamics and maximize value.