Deloitte UK advisory arm rebounds to growth as new boss insists AI ‘can’t replace lived experience’
Big Four giant Deloitte’s new UK boss, Darren Graves, insisted AI “can’t replace lived experience” as the firm’s advisory arms return to growth.
Revenue for the year ended 31 May 2026 for the UK arm was up 2 per cent to £5.81bn, with growth across all businesses.
The firm’s technology and transformation arm led with 4 per cent growth, followed by audit and assurance at 3 per cent, and tax and legal at 2 per cent. Its strategy, risk and transactions advisory group grew by 1 per cent, up from the 10 per cent decline the UK arm reported last year for this business.
The distributable profit rose 14 per cent to £899m from £789m.
Average profit per equity partner (PEP) rose 7 per cent to £1.125m, as overall equity partner numbers also increased 6.5 per cent to 784, the highest annual total in Deloitte UK’s history. Because of its high headcount, the total UK tax contribution for the firm and its partners over the financial year stood at £1.86bn.
Over the year, the firm increased its bonus pool by 14 per cent, with average in-grade salaries rising by more than 4 per cent after it hired 3,500 new staff.
This follows its voluntary redundancy offer to its audit team earlier this year, after low attrition rates. City AM reported that Deloitte put a highly generous package on the table, including eight months of full pay, for the some 200 auditors who took the voluntary package.
New chief declared human judgment remains irreplaceable
Graves, who took over the leadership role in June, said: “This is a good set of results delivered against a complicated backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty and AI advancement.”
“Despite ongoing uncertainty, I am optimistic about Deloitte’s potential across the UK – and our people are key to this.
“As AI makes intelligence increasingly abundant, the role our people play will matter more, not less. AI can’t replace lived experience or replicate the judgement and unwritten know-how built over years of working alongside clients and colleagues,” he added.
These results come after Deloitte reported its global revenue rose 2 per cent in its latest financial year, even as growth in its technology and transformation division slipped.