The global tech consulting market is set to pass $400 billion in global revenues for the first time in 2026, according to a new study from Source Global Research.
The hike is being fueled by a rise in technology upgrades, with a majority of buyers (84%) planning to upgrade their tech over the coming twelve months and 81% intending to increase reliance on consultants.
As a result, Source predicts growth will increase from 4% in 2024 to 6% in 2025, before hitting 7% in 2026 – marking a global revenue hike of around $50 billion in just two years.
Commenting on the findings, Nick Jotischky, Source’s head of market trends, said buyers are adamant about the need to upgrade their tech over the coming year despite market uncertainty and low business confidence.
“Investing to upgrade their legacy infrastructure is at the top of their to-do lists—it is not something they are willing to hold off on until the market becomes clearer,” he explained. “This is fueling the healthy growth rate for technology consulting.”
Globally, the fastest growing sectors in 2026 are expected to be pharma and life sciences (10%), healthcare (10%), as well as energy and resources (9%), owed largely to the sensitive and critical nature of the data these industries handle.
According to Jotischky, buyers across the board are also prioritizing updates to digital transformation programs that have become outdated since their implementation.
“Half of the companies that had conducted a digital transformation reported that they need more work to be done, in terms of updating system integration, adding extra cybersecurity defences, or implementing new technologies,” he added.
Tech consulting plugs expertise gaps
Despite the majority of participating companies (84%) stating that their IT staff will double over the next five years, Source said consulting firms have an opportunity in the meantime to deliver external support to bridge gaps in IT expertise.
While four-in-five companies said they expect to purchase more consulting services from the ‘Big Four’ this year, there is also an appetite for ‘fresh ideas’ from firms they may not have worked with before.
This, the study noted, will create revenue opportunities for those able to show an understanding of current tech infrastructure pain points.
Specifically, more than a third of companies (40%) said they are looking to recruit skills in the use of advanced technologies as well as data analytics as the need for predictive maintenance and personalized user experiences continues to increase.
Price rises
On the cost front, companies now expect to pay more for consulting services, with two thirds of respondents expecting prices to increase and 27% predicting these increases to be significant.
Jotischky said tech buyers anticipate these rises because consulting firms will use more proprietary tools to tackle business challenges – including custom-built AI models and data analysis engines.
“But they also recognize that prices will increase because of greater buy-in from senior levels of the organisation and that the work will be of strategic importance,” he continued.
“Digital transformation projects are extremely important strategically and are most likely to be commissioned by CxOs, so companies are prepared to pay more for them.”
Digital investment
As generative AI capabilities continue to modernize large swathes of the IT landscape, tech buyers view the technology as the most critically important area of technology investment in their organization.
Despite this, Source’s report found that use of generative AI remains “largely at an experimental level” with fewer than one in five companies currently making extensive use of these new capabilities across their organizations.
Looking ahead, however, 94% plan to increase their investment in digital technology over the next 18 months, with more than half (53%) indicating they will do so to a “significant extent.”
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