Building on the heritage of our long-running Future Shopper research, the study reveals both the forces reshaping enterprise purchasing and the sector differences across seven priority industries that determine how suppliers earn attention, build confidence, and turn preference into decision.
When professional services firms invest in enterprise solutions, trust and reputational defensibility dictate the deal. Because these organizations trade on their own expertise, their internal buying committees are hyper-vigilant about risk.
VML’s "The Future Buyer: Professional Services" report examines how professional services buyers research, evaluate and select suppliers for major investments – and what it takes for suppliers to win their business.
Download our 2026 Professional Services report
Purchasing decisions involve an average of 7.1 decision-makers, with final authority concentrated in the C-suite, IT and finance. Because professional standing is closely tied to operational performance, buyers default to familiar legacy brands unless challengers give them solid internal defensibility.
Generative AI is now the primary discovery channel for professional services buyers. Over a third of purchasing teams lock in a strong supplier preference before speaking to a sales representative – shutting out firms that rely solely on winning during formal RFP pitches.
Despite strong defensibility bias, buyers will shortlist unfamiliar suppliers. When evaluating complex solutions, buyers demand detailed, verifiable technical proof early in discovery, followed by direct access to senior subject matter experts who can tailor solutions to their operational model.
More than anything else, professional services buyers are looking for suppliers they can feel confident in.
The world of B2B marketing is being disrupted. 55% of buyers now begin supplier research with Generative AI. To win, your brand must be found by AI, trusted by people and approved by the buying group. Introducing The Future Buyer Report series by VML – a comprehensive study of modern B2B buying behavior based on first-party research with 750 buyers across eight international markets. Seven reports, seven industries – delivering a clear view of what influences buying decisions and how brands can act.
According to VML's "The Future Buyer: Professional Services Report 2026," purchasing decisions involve an average of 7.1 stakeholders. The C-suite holds the greatest meaningful influence over final decisions at 63%, followed by IT/Technology at 61% and finance at 59%, while central procurement influences 48%.
Generative AI is now the leading discovery channel, with 58% of professional services buyers starting research using GenAI tools, ahead of traditional search engines (48%) and direct outreach (41%). Furthermore, 34% form a firm supplier preference before ever speaking to one, and 62% have shortlisted an unfamiliar supplier based entirely on encountering high-quality thought leadership, articles or published frameworks.
Approximately 36.2% of significant buying initiatives end with no decision being made. The primary reasons deals stall or collapse are budget uncertainty or reallocation (39%), risk or compliance concerns (36%), an insufficient or unclear ROI case (36%), and internal misalignment across the buying group (34%).
When approving major investments, professional services buyers prioritize strong brand reputation (55%), a clear implementation roadmap (53%), and provable ROI (52%). Notably, implementation roadmaps are prioritized 10 percentage points higher than the all-industry B2B average (43%), while lowest price was cited by only 15% of respondents.
Professional services buyers are increasingly receptive to AI-led evaluation. 67.5% would feel fairly or fully comfortable approving a significant purchase where AI conducted the primary evaluation. This includes 45.4% who would be comfortable if the criteria were defined by a trusted human and 22.1% who believe AI evaluation can be more consistent and less biased than human review.
Yes. A supplier’s AI capability was the primary differentiating factor for 16.0% of professional services buyers when choosing between comparable suppliers. It also contributed meaningfully to the decision for a further 55.8% – meaning 71.8% say supplier AI capability has already influenced selection in some way.
Supplier differentiation is highly important. 79.8% of professional services buyers say it was somewhat or very important that the supplier they selected had a clear point of differentiation, including 39.9% who consider it very important. Only 7.4% say differentiation was not or only slightly important.
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