Source’s latest market data indicates that the global consulting market will hit $275bn in 2025. This represents 6% growth on a disappointing 2024. But with performance across service lines a mixed bag, where should firms be looking to invest in the year ahead? 

Demand for cyber support is leading the market, but all service lines are forecast to return to positive growth in 2025 

Cybersecurity consulting 

Cybersecurity consulting is set to outperform the rest of the market in 2025, with growth of around 9% forecast, enabling it to hit a total of around $36bn by the end of the year. This also comes on the back of an impressive year in 2024, where 4.6% growth outpaced a disappointing market average of just 3.1%.  

High-profile cyber breaches so far this year have covered everything from retail to supply chain, public sector to tech companies, meaning this risk is high on all boardroom agendas and the associated consulting market shows no sign of slowing.  

Indeed, in Source’s most recent quarterly survey, cyber was the top area where clients said they’d be reaching out for third-party support rather than tackling the challenge themselves—clients recognise that they need a core capability to deal with cyber in-house, but they also want to draw on external experts in such a fast-moving and endlessly evolving space.  

Investment is expected across all areas of this market too, whether it’s general advice, preparation work, penetration testing, or incident response. As a result, the cyber consulting market is forecast to remain the fastest-growing opportunity for firms all the way into 2027.  

Risk & financial management 

Risk & financial management is forecast to be the second-fastest growing consulting market in 2025 at 7% (down from first last year). It remains the third largest of the consulting markets we cover and is set to hit $58.7bn in 2025, providing a lucrative target for firms.  

In combination with cyber services, risk work is helping clients strengthen their defensive armoury in what many perceive to be a frequently hostile and unreliable world. Capabilities that look set to be in high demand include core risk management, financial restructuring, and responding to regulation.  

In our conversations with clients it seems that terminology around risk offerings may not be hitting the mark, and terms like security or resilience may be more appealing to buyers in this space. This may explain the unexpected (and possibly transient) dip in clients who say they’ll be reaching out for support in this area in Source’s Q2 2025 client survey; we’ll be keeping a close eye on this throughout the year. Let us know if you’d like to hear more about the market-shaping trends in this area. 

Technology & innovation 

Technology & innovation is the largest consulting market, with a total value of $69.2bn forecast for 2025. While growth looks likely to hover just below the market average at 5%, this is an improvement on the disappointing 2.7% experienced in 2024.  

Growth in 2024 was tempered after years of heavy investment, and clients also seemed to be playing a wait-and-see game with their investment in AI, asking themselves whether there were truly viable business cases with a proven ROI. In 2025, the answer to this question appears to be a resounding “yes”, with exploiting the opportunities of AI, digital transformation, and improving tech infrastructure all in the top-four client priorities in our Q2 client survey. Our data on AI adoption and propensity to spend on AI consulting services show a tipping point has been reached—stay close for more on this topic.  

Areas of high demand for consulting in 2025 look set to include data visualisation & business intelligence, user experience & service design, and a continuation of ERP work.  

Strategy 

Strategy consulting remains the second-largest service line after technology & innovation, and is set to edge past $60bn for the first time in 2025. It has grown steadily, at or above the consulting sector average, since a calamitous year in 2023, and in line with this we forecast 6% growth in 2025. 

The uncertainty of the last two years has meant that clients have been keener to implement their plans rather than try and look longer term and strategise. However, they are now recognising that in an unreliable world they will need to make larger, more far-reaching changes to their business models, which is likely to drive up the use of strategy work. Consequently, the market is now returning, albeit steadily, to decent levels of spend. In Source’s Q2 client survey, customer experience and growth were rising priorities, and these are examples of goals that are likely to fuel demand in strategy-related consulting work.  

Technology & innovation remains the largest market, with strategy work also forecast to breach the $60bn threshold in 2025

Services under pressure 

Operations 

Operations remains a sizeable consulting market, with an expected value of $36bn in 2025. However, it performed considerably below expectations in 2024 and even dipped into negative territory. Growth looks set to remain below the market average in 2025, but should edge towards 4% and continue on a slow but steady recovery into 2026.  

This market performed below our expectations in 2024 when demand for operational improvement fell slightly as clients tackled more of this work in-house and also hit a cost-cutting wall. Some particular niches of work that are forecast to perform well in 2025 include customer service, sales advisory, and supply chain work. 

HR, change & people strategy  

HR, change & people strategy has been the poorest-performing service line for five out of the last six years, and we don’t see that changing anytime soon. Indeed, underwhelming growth of just 2% will see it edge slowly towards a market size of $14.6bn in 2025.  

Diversity and inclusion work is set to take a big hit in the US market following the change of administration. Highlights in a market otherwise under pressure may include areas aligned to transformation of the workforce by tech and AI, for example, change management and organisational training. Plus, services in this area are likely to remain valuable elements of multidisciplinary transformation projects throughout 2025. 

What can firms do next? 

If you would like access to Source’s market-sizing data to help you make strategic decisions about the consulting services you prioritise in your firm, then get in touch. Our multidimensional model of the global professional services sector can help you track your market, understand its trajectory, and identify tomorrow’s opportunities.