From AI to ROI in B2B Professional Services
The prize is huge. Why most firms are missing out, and why we’re not surprised.
Here's the hard truth: Despite massive investment, 60% of companies report little to no AI value. Yet the leaders who are getting it right are seeing roughly double the revenue gains and 40% greater cost reductions versus laggards, according to BCG's 2025 research on AI value creation. The gap is widening, not narrowing.
And to be honest, we’re not surprised. Too many initiatives start with tech and features rather than the urgent and expensive client problems. That “solution‑first” bias is why pilots will often look promising, but revenue and profit remain elusive.
The winners aren't adding AI—they're redesigning their value propositions and business models.
In our work helping enterprise services firms standardize and scale their expertise, we see the same trap: leaders try to "add AI" to today's delivery model.`
AI's real impact comes when you reframe services as products that target verifiable client problems—then price and sell outcomes, not hours. We call that productization: using technology to turn 1:1 expertise into 1:many solutions and repeatable value propositions.
The difference in approach:
- Start with the customer problem, not the tech. Teams that anchor on "urgent and expensive" problems and run rapid build-measure-learn experiments find product-market fit—and ROI—faster. MVPs are a starting line, not a finish line.
- Pair AI with business model redesign. The real impact shows up when you rewire how you create and capture value: workflow redesign, pricing change, and sales enablement. Not when you bolt on a chatbot.
Why ROI stalls: What it looks like in the field
IRL Case #1: Law Firms
The trap: Productivity wins that don’t improve margin
Legal teams are using AI for research, drafting, and due diligence. Associates move faster, and quality is often more consistent. But when time savings aren’t translated into matter throughput, response-time SLAs, or alternative fee structures, partners still ask, “Why aren’t margins up?” Value gets swallowed by write-downs and fixed-fee overages.
Meanwhile, clients are already expecting AI-level speed and precision—so “we’re faster” no longer differentiates.
What to change: Bundle outcomes clients will buy and price based on that value, not hours.
IRL Case #2: HR Consulting
The trap: Useful features that are hard to price or scale
HR teams are rapidly testing gen‑AI for job descriptions, screening, and knowledge retrieval. But much of it remains feature‑level. It’s useful, yet hard to price or scale.
The ROI shows up when HR Consulting firms package expertise + data + playbooks as a solution.
What to change: Lead with the outcome (improved retention rate, reduced benefit costs), with clear SLAs and escalation paths. Sell the bundle, not the model.
The pattern: Most firms take a solution-first approach when it comes to AI
They optimize today's delivery and stop there. The leaders are pulling away by solving customer problems that were never possible to solve before—and aligning their pricing and sales strategy to that new reality.
Inside professional services, productization creates that shift:
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Start with urgent and expensive problems by client segment, not the newest tech
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Price outcomes, not hours that reflect what your client segments will pay for
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Use a test-and-learn approach to build repeatable, tech-enabled offers
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Enable a solutions sales motion that leads with impact, not feature lists
What's next?
The gap between AI hype and ROI is real—but it's not inevitable. Firms that start with customer problems, productize their expertise, and rewire pricing, workflows, and sales are already converting time savings into revenue growth.
Vecteris helps professional services firms standardize, scale, and productize with AI starting with a 3-week AI Strategy Sprint that identifies your first two productized bundles and projects 18-month ROI.
If you'd like a working session to map your path forward, get in touch.
Additional Blog Posts to explore:
Agent Bosses, Not AI Users: The Cultural Shift B2B Firms Must Embrace
The AI Transformation is a Business Model Transformation
Time & Materials is Dead. What Comes Next for AI-Enabled Services?