Henrico Dolfing

Professional services firms have spent the past several years examining what artificial intelligence will do to their own operating models.

When China Evergrande Group collapsed, the immediate questions were about the company.

For several years, the artificial-intelligence discussion inside professional services has focused primarily on what individual firms are building.

In October 2021, New Mountain Capital invested in Citrin Cooperman at a reported enterprise value of approximately USD 500 million.

Professional services firms have traditionally treated sales and delivery as two parts of the same operating model.

When CBIZ entered the public markets in 1996, it began an institutional experiment that would eventually make it one of the most unusual organisations in professional services.

Five years ago, the central question surrounding private equity investment in US accounting firms was whether the model could work at all.

In March 2026, TowerBrook Capital Partners completed a continuation vehicle transaction for its investment in EisnerAmper.

This article builds on Manufacturing Judgment: How Professional Services Build Their Most Valuable Asset, which argued that professional-services firms have always produced two outcomes through client work.

When EQT acquired an anchor stake in WTS Germany in April 2025, the transaction entered a professional-services market already being reshaped by private capital.