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Financial services institutions are moving beyond AI-driven assistance toward agent-led operating models, driven by advances in foundation models, orchestration capabilities, real-time market infrastructure, and evolving regulatory frameworks. Agentic AI enables firms to coordinate and execute multistep workflows across investment, trading, servicing, and post-trade functions with minimal human intervention. Firms are prioritizing high-impact, repeatable processes for near-term efficiency gains while redesigning complex workflows for phased autonomy, supported by strong governance, auditability, and ecosystem integration.
Global Competency Centers (GCCs) are undergoing a fundamental transformation as enterprises move beyond traditional, centralized delivery models toward more agile, innovation-led operating structures. As business complexity increases and digital transformation accelerates, organizations are redefining GCC roles to focus on strategic value creation, product ownership, and enterprise integration. Emerging operating models are enabling greater autonomy, scalability, and alignment with business priorities, positioning GCCs as critical drivers of innovation, resilience, and long-term enterprise competitiveness.
In our first-ever Asia-Pacific and the Middle East IT Spending and Staffing report, we set out to determine whether there are significant differences in IT spending between our main IT spending and staffing sample and those within three specific regions in Asia and the Pacific: Australia and New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, and the Middle East. As global IT departments deploy much of the same technology, deliver most of the same services, and tackle most of the same economic pressures, we hypothesized that our benchmarking data for North America and Europe would be largely similar to APAC and the Middle East. This Research Byte is a brief description of some of the findings in our APAC and the Middle East IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks 2026/2027 study.
Following a period of strong post‑pandemic expansion, the Big Four and leading strategy consulting firms are entering a phase of growth normalization marked by revenue convergence, selective hiring, organizational realignment, and increased focus on productivity and technology‑enabled delivery. Firms are prioritizing consulting‑led growth, strengthening leadership and governance structures, and expanding alliances particularly around AI, cloud, and digital platforms to support scalable and repeatable client outcomes.
This report examines key business trends across the Big Four and strategy consulting firms over the period analyzed, with a focus on revenue performance, service‑line and regional shifts, talent and leadership developments, and partnership activity. It also reviews changes in productivity metrics and highlights the growing role of AI‑related capabilities and ecosystem partnerships in shaping firm strategies and operating models.
Chapter 15 provides comprehensive human resources (HR) process metrics benchmarks for the transportation and logistics sector. This sector encompasses a wide array of organizations, including freight and cargo operators, logistics service providers, shipping companies, airlines, trucking fleets, rail carriers, and warehousing and distribution firms. The 16 respondents from this sector vary significantly in size, ranging from companies with annual revenue of over $1 billion to those with annual revenue of $22 billion.
Chapter 14 provides comprehensive human resources (HR) process metrics benchmarks for the retail sector. This sector encompasses a wide array of organizations, including supermarkets, department stores, specialty retailers, e‑commerce companies, wholesale outlets, convenience chains, and large multiformat retail enterprises. The 17 respondents in this sector vary significantly in size, ranging from companies with annual revenue of over $700 million to more than $97 billion.
Chapter 13 provides comprehensive human resources (HR) process metrics benchmarks for the professional and technical services sector (excluding IT). This sector encompasses organizations such as consulting firms, engineering practices, scientific research entities, legal service providers, architectural companies, accounting and audit firms, marketing agencies, and other professional services enterprises. The 14 respondents in this sector vary significantly in size, ranging from companies with annual revenue of over $640 million to those with annual revenue of more than $24 billion.
Chapter 12 provides comprehensive human resources (HR) process metrics benchmarks within the media and information services sector. This sector encompasses a wide array of organizations, including digital publishers, broadcasting networks, content production studios, advertising agencies, data analytics firms, news organizations, content distribution platforms, and large multimedia enterprises. The 14 respondents in this sector vary significantly in size, ranging from companies with annual revenue of over $2 billion to more than $16 billion.
Chapter 11 provides comprehensive human resources (HR) process metrics benchmarks within the process manufacturing sector. This sector encompasses a wide array of organizations, including manufacturers of discrete products and related service providers. The 25 respondents in this sector vary significantly in size, ranging from companies with annual revenue over $600 million to those with annual revenue under $30 billion.
Chapter 10 provides comprehensive human resources (HR) process metrics benchmarks within the discrete manufacturing sector. This sector encompasses a wide array of organizations, including manufacturers of discrete products and related service providers. The 23 respondents in this sector vary significantly in size, ranging from companies with annual revenue over $600 million to those with annual revenue under $31 billion.
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