Deltek study: 91% of A&E firms call AI critical but ROI gap persists
Deltek has published its seventh annual Clarity Study, drawing on responses from 375 senior leaders at architecture, engineering and consulting (A&E) firms across the UK, Germany and Australia. The report, framed as a CFO-facing guide, finds that 91% of firms surveyed regard AI as critical to organisational success, with 68% increasing AI investment in 2026. Yet fewer than half, 46%, report even moderate productivity or cost savings from that spend.
The data, collected in January 2026 in partnership with research firm 3Gem, surfaces a recurring gap between AI ambition and measurable return. Eleven per cent of respondents report significant savings; the remaining 35% reporting any benefit describe it as moderate. The study does not disclose what proportion of firms report no discernible return, though the arithmetic implies it is substantial.
The margin picture
On profitability, the study finds that cost control has overtaken revenue growth as the primary lever for improvement. Thirty-four per cent of firms identify tighter purchasing and approval controls as their single biggest driver of profitability, up from 26% in 2024. Automation of manual processes (32%) and ensuring all billable hours are invoiced (30%) follow closely. Seventy-three per cent of firms expect gross profit margins to rise in 2026, a sharp increase from the 49% that actually achieved a margin improvement in 2025. Deltek frames that gap as evidence that firms are banking on operational changes now underway rather than changes already embedded.
Only 22% of respondents operate a fully integrated, end-to-end project management system. The majority describe themselves as mostly integrated with some tools still disconnected, a configuration the study links directly to delayed financial decisions and undetected cost overruns. Firms with full integration report the highest gross profit margins of any cohort in the dataset.
Will Guest, Finance Director at Ardent, is quoted in the study: "In 2026, we expect AI to support forecasting, reporting, and other repeatable processes, freeing our teams to focus on higher-value analysis. The key is robust, well-governed data and integrated systems so AI outcomes are timely, reliable, and actionable."
Cyber risk and market context
The study also addresses cybersecurity as a finance-function concern. Two-thirds of professional services firms in the sample (66%) report being targeted by a cyber attack in the past three years. Of those affected, 45% suffered direct financial losses, a figure that rises to 50% among UK respondents specifically. The study argues that finance leaders should treat cyber exposure as a balance-sheet and P&L matter rather than an IT risk-register item.
The Clarity Study's findings sit within a broader pattern visible across the enterprise software market. Vendors serving project-based professional services, including Oracle, SAP, Workday, and a range of specialist ERP providers, have all accelerated AI-feature development over the past 18 months, intensifying pressure on mid-market incumbents such as Deltek to demonstrate quantifiable returns. The AI returns gap identified in the Clarity data is consistent with wider enterprise surveys: a February 2026 McKinsey Global Survey found that fewer than a third of organisations had achieved material financial impact from generative AI deployments.
For finance leaders in A&E firms, the practical implication is governance: the study recommends appointing a finance owner for AI ROI, establishing shared return definitions across finance, operations and technology, and prioritising AI deployment in forecasting and billing workflows first. The agentic AI layer, autonomous systems that coordinate resourcing, update forecasts and process invoices without manual intervention, is flagged as the next transition point, with the study advising firms to build integrated data foundations now to be positioned for that shift.