Use Of AI In Business Drives Increase In Consulting Services

The slice of businesses using external providers for AI uptake is set to more than double, according to U.S. Census survey data. Industry leaders say that tracks with their outlook.

The portion of businesses using outside providers to deploy AI is expected to more than double in the next six months, according to a U.S. government survey on the use of AI in business.

The Census Bureau’s “Business Trends and Outlook Survey” polls a sample of 1.2 million businesses, divided into six groups of about 200,000. The bureau periodically surveys businesses in each group, collecting data every two weeks. The bureau in March released its first set of AI usage data, obtained in a series of biweekly snapshots between September 2023 and February 2024. About 164,500 U.S. businesses responded.

The research pointed to a 129% increase in the slice of businesses planning to use vendors or consulting services providers on AI projects in the next six months compared with their rate of use in the previous six months. That projected boost represents the average across 17 industry sectors.

Consulting execs confirm rising demand

Industry executives said the survey results track with what they see in the market: rapidly rising demand among customers asking for help with generative AI and large language models (LLMs).

“I would say at least double, and we’ll probably see even more,” said Scott Wheeler, AWS practice lead at Asperitas Consulting, referring to the demand for AI consulting services. “There’s a lot of uptick around LLMs driving this.”

Wheeler said service providers will find opportunities with out-of-the-box offerings such as Microsoft Copilot. But he suggested the more lucrative projects will involve customizing and tuning LLMs using customers’ industry-specific data sets. For example, Asperitas, a cloud services company based in Chicago, consults with financial services clients on AI.