AI Gold Rush Fuels Fastest US Consulting Boom Since COVID
US consulting market projected to grow 7% in 2026 as companies scramble for AI and data center expertise.
The US consulting market is about to have its best year since the pandemic ended. Research firm Source Global projects 7% growth in 2026 — the fastest pace in the post-COVID era.
The driving force? Artificial intelligence. Companies are flooding consulting firms with questions about how to actually make money from AI. Energy infrastructure for data centers is a particularly hot area, with businesses desperate for guidance on powering the massive compute facilities that AI demands.
It's a telling signal about where enterprise spending is headed. Rather than just buying AI tools and figuring it out, companies are willing to pay hefty consulting fees to get the strategy right. The consulting industry, which took a hit during the pandemic years, is now riding the AI wave harder than almost anyone predicted.
When corporations start spending billions on advice about a technology, that technology has officially gone mainstream.