UK firms slash consulting spend amid rising AI adoption September 8, 2026 British businesses are paring back their spending on consulting firms as they turn to AI for problem-solving, according to City AM’s new Business Spend Pulse. Median spending on consulting fees fell by 1.9 per cent in August compared to last year, the tracker found, despite an overall 2.2 per cent increase in corporate spending. That [...]
Lloyd’s of London profit slides as bond market jitters bite September 3, 2026 The world’s leading insurance and reinsurance market has suffered a slump in profit after being weighed down by bond market jitters. Lloyd’s of London took a 16.7 per cent hit to its pre-tax profit £3.5bn for the first six months of 2026. Gross written premiums leapt 6.9 per cent to £34.7bn, up from £32.5bn last [...]
Ditch the ‘usual suspects’: Gov.uk founder urges Labour to look beyond Big Four consultants September 2, 2026 Labour has loudly pledged to slash taxpayer spending on external consultants. However, the founder of a City-based digital consultancy firm told City AM that the government still relies on private firms to plug operational gaps because the civil service previously “got rid of the wrong skills”. Ben Terrett, chief executive and founder of Public Digital, said the [...]
The common sense deficit hitting the City’s professional services firms September 2, 2026 The rise of AI has put serious pressure on professional services firms to figure out hiring and training strategies as an industry built to sell knowledge faces a knowledge gap as a new era enters the workforce with skills very different from the cohort ahead of them, writes Maria Ward-Brennan. Much of the conversation about [...]
Former Interpath Advisory chair takes helm at sustainability consultancy after chief executive exit September 1, 2026 Interpath Advisory’s former chair will lead the City-headquartered, sustainability-focused consultancy Anthesis Group as its new chair, as its chief executive steps down. Tamara Box, previously City law firm Reed Smith‘s managing partner for Europe and the Middle East, is set to take on the new chair of Anthesis Group’s board of directors this week after [...]
City firms mandate phone and face-to-face comms bootcamps for Gen Z lawyers August 28, 2026 City Law firms are rolling out mandatory programmes to train their junior lawyers in communication skills, including how to speak on the phone and deal with clients in person. Addleshaw Goddard’s ‘early careers’ team introduced a training programme after identifying that some early-career lawyers “may have had limited exposure to a professional services environment and [...]
Affluent Big Four partners lack ‘fire in the belly’ to disrupt consulting market August 27, 2026 The trend of Big Four partners leaving to launch boutique consultancies has accelerated in recent years. But Q5 co-founder has told City AM that many will struggle to build true challenger brands without an “all or nothing” approach. Five founders, including managing partner Olly Purnell, launched boutique consultancy firm Q5 at the height of the global financial [...]
Interpath chief fined for breaching confidentiality rules before KPMG spin-off August 26, 2026 The chief executive of restructuring firm Interpath Advisory has been fined for allegedly breaching confidentiality standards before the company was sold to private equity by Big Four accounting giant KPMG, its former owner. The UK’s accounting body, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW), said Mark Raddan, a former KPMG board member, [...]
Top FTSE headhunter rescued by rival after plunging into administration August 25, 2026 A City-based boutique headhunter which won executive-level talent for a host of FTSE 250 firms and collapsed after pumping investment into an AI platform has been purchased by one of its competitors, City AM can reveal. 6 Group, a global executive recruitment consultancy, purchased Savannah Group and its AI platform, MapX, in July after founder [...]
Budget supermarket Iceland’s sneaky jab at Big Four management consultants August 20, 2026 Supermarket chain Iceland has shared a subtle dig at management consultants on its website. There is a tongue and cheek reference to a £16m spend on external consultancy firms which include Big Four giant PwC, during a turbulent era for the business in the early 2000s. The retailer, known for selling frozen food, published a [...]