New research by software provider, Deltek has uncovered a strong streak of optimism among engineering, architecture, and consultancy firms around technology’s potential to drive growth.
Despite economic headwinds, firms are said to be showing ambition, with 83% looking to increase profit growth this year, and 42% expecting to increase headcount significantly.
Engineering firms started the year with the most ambitious, with 60% predicting an increase in gross profit margins of more than 10% in 2025 from last year. This compared to 44% across all professional services industries surveyed, Deltek says.
Neil Davidson, group vice president, professional services sector at Deltek, said: “Professional services firms are already recognising the efficiency savings and growth opportunities provided by digital transformation. This year is a pivotal time for realising the benefits technology can bring, as firms still look to grow in 2025.
“It’s promising to see that the shift in the use of technology is also underpinning greater confidence in tracking project metrics – something we have not seen in our past Clarity reports. The strides professional services firms have made in implementing advancements in technology, ahead of schedule, are further improving their ability to manage the factors that contribute to attaining KPIs.
“Successful tracking is vital for providing insight into core business metrics, the optimisation of processes, and supporting productivity to help firms ensure they stay on-track to meet their goals.”
The research, conducted across UK-based engineering, architecture, and consultancy firms, identifies technology and automation as the top potential drivers of profitability.
The top two priorities for firms are investing in new technology, such as adopting AI (39%), and the effective implementation of new innovations, again for example, AI (37%). Cybersecurity is also a high priority, with over a third (36%) of project-based firms now citing it as a top three priority for their business, compared to less than a quarter (23%) last year.
As a result of the focus on technology advancements, over half of UK project-based firms (56%) are now at “mature” or “advanced” stage of their digital transformation development, up from less than a third (32%) in 2024.
Digital priority
According to Deltek, this indicates that firms are prioritising digital transformation and maturing more rapidly. In fact, compared to 2024 predictions on how fast they would achieve maturity in digital transformation, timelines have been brought forward two years with many professional services already achieving a level of digital maturity that they had not expected to reach until 2027.
The use of AI and automation are also pivotal this year in attaining key performance indicators (KPIs) for project-based businesses in the UK. Rising competition for talent (30%) and project complexity (28%) in 2025 are key pressures identified for project management in the next three years.
However, 40% of firms are addressing this by prioritising the adoption of AI and automation for streamlining project processes. In 2025, confidence in tracking key project metrics.
As well as investing in technology, project-based UK businesses are also expanding their workforce, with 76% planning to increase headcount in 2025. This is a significant increase from last year, where just 58% of firms expected to expand their workforce.
Engineering firms were the most ambitious in this area in terms of significant headcount increase, with 42% planning to grow their talent pool by more than 10% in 2025 (compared to the average 34% expecting the same level of growth across all professional services firms).
However, organisations are conscious that a lack of upskilling investment (48%) and a lack of employee engagement (34%) are still detrimentally impacting their organisation. To address this and empower young professionals in 2025, firms are concentrating on promoting a culture of collaboration and innovation in the workplace (51%), encouraging continuous learning (49%), and providing access to advanced technologies (45%).
Image credit: Gerd Altmann/Pixabay
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