• Staff in one of Deloitte's four UK divisions will get lower bonuses after missing profit targets.
• The firm will also promote fewer staff this year, according to an internal email seen by BI.
• The promotions move was demotivating and has "dampened" the office mood, a Deloitte employee said.

Deloitte told employees in one of its UK consulting divisions to expect lower annual bonuses following weaker-than-expected financial performance.

Richard Houston, a senior partner and chief executive of Deloitte UK, wrote in a companywide email on Tuesday that employees in the technology and transformation (T&T) consulting division would receive an average of 80% of their annual bonus.

Partners in the division will also face a drop in annual rewards, Houston said in the memo seen by Business Insider.

The memo was first reported by The Financial Times.

The T&T business had "faced a particularly challenging year and fell materially short of its performance goals," Houston wrote.

Bonuses have always been linked to individual and firm performance. However, for the 2025 financial year, they will also take into account performance variations in each of Deloitte's four business lines.

The shift means that workers in Deloitte's other three business lines — which cover deals, tax and legal, and audit and assurance services — will retain their full bonus.

Those three divisions have either exceeded targets or, in the case of the audit and assurance branch, had still increased profits in the 2025 financial year, Houston wrote.

Deloitte will also promote fewer employees than in previous years, Houston said.

The firm would promote 5,500 employees, or about 25% of the UK workforce, at the start of the next financial year, he said. In the previous year, 28% were promoted, Houston said.

A Deloitte consultant in the T&T division said the news about promotions was demotivating and had "dampened" the mood. They added that their division had taken "a beating."

It's "not the best feeling since T&T functions have historically pulled the firm forward in times of crisis," the employee added.

Deloitte UK's total profits for its 2025 financial year, which ends on May 31, would be "slightly ahead of last year" but "below our original plan," Houston wrote.

"At the start of FY25, we expected greater economic stability and a gradual return of growth opportunities. But an early election, geopolitical complexity, and unexpected economic headwinds — like changes in trade policies — have continued to cause market uncertainty," he said.

Deloitte's global revenue climbed 3.1% to $67.2 billion in the 2024 financial year, which marked a sharp slowdown in growth compared to the 14.9% increase in 2023.

The firm's UK arm has reorganized its business divisions and laid off workers as it grappled with an industrywide slowdown in demand for consulting services that has hit revenue growth.

Cost-cutting

In October 2024, Deloitte UK cut its spending on staff travel and expenses by more than 50%.

Houston addressed the cost-cutting measures in Tuesday's email, acknowledging "it has not been easy" for teams to be unable to meet in person for much of the year.

He said the efforts to manage costs had "made a significant difference" and had directly contributed to bonuses for the 2025 financial year.

A Deloitte UK spokesperson told BI: "Amid ongoing market uncertainty, we are pleased to be able to recognize our people for their hard work with salary increases, bonuses, and promotions this year. This is alongside other benefits such as fully funded private medical insurance, recently enhanced family policies, and our commitment to offering flexibility and choice in our ways of working."

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• The Big Four dominate the professional services industry.
• AI may disrupt not just job roles, but their organizational structure, business models, and pricing structures.
• Meanwhile, some midsize firms say they are better placed to adapt quickly and benefit from AI.

The Big Four — Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG — are a select and powerful few. They dominate the professional services industry and have done so for decades.

But all empires fall eventually. Large corporations tend to merge, transform, or get replaced by the latest wave of innovative upstarts.

It's hard to see that time coming for the Big Four. With huge revenues, international reach, vast workforces, and numerous service offerings, they're indispensable for many corporations.

Yet AI could be poised to disrupt their business models, organizational structure, and day-to-day roles, while driving opportunities for the mid-market.

Automation is coming

The Big Four advise companies on how to navigate change, but they could be among the most vulnerable to AI themselves, said Alan Paton, who until recently was a partner in PwC's financial services division, specializing in AI and the cloud.

Paton, now the CEO of Qodea, a Google Cloud solutions consultancy, told Business Insider he's a firm believer that AI-driven automation will bring major disruption to key service lines and drive "a huge reduction" in profits.

Most structured, data-heavy tasks in audit, tax, and strategic advisory will be automated within the next three to five years, eliminating about 50% of roles, Paton said. There are already examples of AI solutions capable of performing 90% of the audit process, he said.

Paton thinks automation means clients will increasingly question why they should pay consultants big money to "give me an answer I can get instantaneously from a tool."

Unless they become far more specialized, the Big Four will be in trouble, he said.

Others are less convinced AI will make consultants and accountants obsolete, arguing instead that AI will free up time and drive productivity.

"AI frees up consultants, but it will never replace them," said Casey Foss, chief commercial officer at midsize firm West Monroe.

Businesses will continue to require expertise as AI develops — it's not a "set it and forget it" solution, she said. There will always be a need for the human in the loop who can understand problems holistically and has the "expertise of the gut feel."

The Big Four's vulnerabilities

The debate over how AI will disrupt job roles affects all consulting firms, but some industry insiders say the Big Four's business model is also at risk.

"No one is more exposed to AI disruption than the Big Four," said Foss. AI is bringing price points down, which will hit revenues, and creating demand for outcomes-based pricing models over traditional billable hours that the Big Four have always used, she said.

Firms have to be nimble to adapt to these changes at scale while simultaneously upskilling their staff and rethinking services, Foss said. Pivoting a huge organization like EY, KPMG, PwC, or Deloitte is "definitely harder," she said.

Offshoring, a cornerstone of the Big Four's business model, could also be a handicap.

The Big Four have built their healthy revenue streams on junior-heavy pyramids, with an increasing degree of labor arbitrage, offshoring work to cheaper labor markets, often in Asia.

"If work can be done using AI, where you don't need to have an office in Indonesia, you can actually deliver it from the UK into those services, then I think these companies are going to be deeply challenged," said Paton.

If the way you deliver a service is based on the number of people you have, "you're really vulnerable," he said.

Amid tight market conditions and slow attrition rates, Big Four employees are already suffering. A number of UK and US branches have laid off workers and slowed hiring in the past year. This May, PwC laid off roughly 2% of its US workforce, largely from its audit and tax lines.

Rise of mid-market firms

As disruption heads for the Big Four's established order, AI is proving a boon to mid-market consulting firms.

"AI is a necessary enabler for these firms to proliferate and prosper," said Alibek Dostiyarov, a former McKinsey consultant who is now CEO of Perceptis, a startup that provides AI solutions to smaller firms to streamline "mind-numbing" consulting tasks.

Automation diminishes smaller firms' previous disadvantages, like lacking an army of talent or advanced internal tools, while empowering employees to be more productive, said Dostiyarov.

Perceptis' clients say the tool allows them to reply to about 10 or 12 project inquiries rather than prioritizing two or three, he said.

West Monroe's win rate is higher, and its pipeline is "bigger than it's ever been," Foss told BI. In the past six to 12 months, the firm, which has just over 2,000 employees, has also started to see a new talent set emerge in its recruiting pipeline — leadership candidates from the Big Four.

Foss said ex-Big Four candidates are "excited about how boutique firms can use this technology faster and more iteratively to serve clients differently."

Too big not to adapt

Others say the Big Four's size and expertise make it inevitable that they'll overcome AI disruption.

The four firms have invested billions in artificial intelligence, far more than smaller firms could ever afford.

In 2023, KPMG said its plan to invest $2 billion in artificial intelligence and cloud services over the next five years would generate more than $12 billion in revenue over that period.

Innovation leaders at EY and KPMG told BI the scale and breadth of their offerings were an advantage and helped them deliver integrated AI solutions for clients.

"While small firms may move quickly, we are uniquely positioned to deliver enterprise-grade AI solutions, manage risk, and integrate technology across global operations," said Cliff Justice, a key figure in KPMG's global AI program.

Justice said that while it's true AI is disrupting traditional business models, the assumption that it will break the dominance of the Big Four underestimates their structural advantages, strategic positioning, and ability to adapt at scale.

Raj Sharma, EY's global managing partner for growth and innovation, told BI that the firm's breadth of business made it the perfect "testbed for innovation."

"Our strength is in our ability to bring to clients more than 100 years of deep sector experience and quality data sets, human-centered and supported by the collective knowledge of 400,000 skilled professionals," Sharma said.

Both leaders also said their deep expertise was necessary for handling the increased ethical, security, and regulatory compliance challenges created by AI.

"Businesses need a partner that can do more than provide relevant tech capabilities," said Sharma.

PwC's chief technology officer, Umang Paw, said that his firm was "more than ready" for this "moment of reinvention."

"We're not coming at this cold — we've had an AI practice for more than 10 years and are working with our technology alliance partners to build AI-enabled solutions that embed our expertise and allow clients to access our support in new ways," he said.

"Every industrial revolution has reshaped professional services and AI is no exception," said Paw.

Deloitte did not respond to a request for comment.

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• Companies are turning to consulting firms for help navigating Trump's tariffs.
• Firms are advising them to audit contracts, adjust pricing, and manage costs proactively.
• "Companies have more control than they realize," Shannon Copeland, CEO of SIB consulting, told BI.

If you are confused by what President Donald Trump's tariffs mean for you, you are not alone.

As businesses confront a new era of American protectionism, many are turning to consulting firms for strategies to adapt to the rapidly changing regulatory landscape.

Business Insider spoke to the leaders of some of the world's top consulting firms to find out what advice they give their clients.

Some businesses' first instinct is to pass the cost of tariffs onto the consumer. In March, the Association for Supply Chain Management surveyed 400 supply chain professionals and found that 65% of companies intended to do just that.

Several consultants told BI, however, that blanket price increases aren't always the best move.

Consumers are facing higher prices across the board, so unless the product is a basic necessity, trying to shift the cost will generally result in reduced demand, KPMG's national operations lead, Paul Hencoski, told BI. Ultimately, a business would be forced to cut prices to move stock, he said.

"Companies have more control than they realize," Shannon Copeland, CEO of SIB consulting told BI. As a cost-cutting specialist, SIB aims to help clients avoid overpaying in the areas they can control, so that when prices rise, they're not starting from a place of inefficiency, Copeland said.

"The businesses that fare best are the ones that don't leave their spend on autopilot," he said. "Get proactive and treat tariff exposure like any other enterprise risk."

He advised companies to audit vendor contracts, analyze rate structures, and assess recurring spend for hidden vulnerabilities.

With tariffs restricting supply chain maneuverability, the rapidly emerging topic companies need to be thinking about is "go to market," Boston Consulting Group Global Chairman Rich Lesser told BI.

He said they should be asking questions like: How do you understand your economics versus your competitors? How do you monitor what's happening in real time on a store shelf or in an industrial supply chain? How do you think about pricing for your business?

McKinsey Senior Partner Cindy Levy said some companies may benefit from revisiting prices more often. "Instead of once a year, they may adjust every few months. It's really about managing costs across the value chain, especially when raising prices isn't an option."

Other ways to cut costs include "changing packaging or ingredients, adjusting promotion strategies, or focusing on products that are under less cost pressure," she added.

Kristin Bohl, a PwC partner focused on customs and international trade, offered three broad tips: Create agile strategies, bring the right people together, and model out your impact.

"You cannot make informed decisions about your strategic response to the tariffs unless you know the financial impact of those tariffs on your business," she said. Options for businesses who wanted to avoid raising prices include delaying tariff payments or even getting a refund, she said.

In the short run, "consumers and businesses are likely to share the burden, with more of it falling on consumers over time," researchers at the University of Pennsylvania wrote in a brief on the economic impact of Trump's tariffs.

In early April, Trump announced a 90-day pause on his "reciprocal tariffs," which initially targeted about 185 countries. Since then, the administration has been negotiating with various trading partners, including Canada, Mexico, Japan, and China.

Trump announced an agreement with the UK this month, which includes "billions of dollars of increased market access for American exports," specifically agricultural products, Trump said.

The US and China, meanwhile, also reached an agreement. Both countries agreed to lower tariffs by 115% while retaining an additional 10% tariff, according to a statement by the White House.

That means the United States will remove the additional tariffs it imposed on China on April 8 and April 9, but keep duties levied on China prior to April 2. China, meanwhile, will remove the retaliatory tariffs it announced since April 4 and suspend or remove the non-tariff countermeasures taken against the United States since April 2.

When it comes to preparing for the long term, KPMG's Hencoski said companies need to construct a response team of people from across their organization that can digest all the impacts and develop a plan of action.

Companies are also "using this moment to revisit longer-term decisions around their footprint, suppliers, and even where to invest," Levy said. The smartest among them "aren't just reacting — they're preparing for a future where disruptions are the norm."

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• Consulting firms have seen increased demand since President Donald Trump began levying tariffs.
• Leaders from McKinsey, BCG, PwC, KPMG, and SIB told BI old and new clients alike are reaching out.
• "We're seeing double-digit growth in our revenue and bookings in several sectors," KPMG said.

President Donald Trump's tariffs have shaken financial markets, spurred consumer stockpiling, and forced businesses to brace for hits to their bottom lines.

While another of Trump's efforts, DOGE, has hurt the consulting industry, the tariffs, aimed at narrowing the $1.2 trillion trade deficit in goods the US imported in 2024, have so far spared the services sector, leaving consultancies largely untouched.

That puts them in a unique position to help companies trying to navigate shifting trade dynamics and rising costs. Leaders from McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, PwC, SIB consulting, and KPMG told Business Insider they're being tapped more often by both existing and new clients seeking guidance.

Kristin Bohl, a PwC partner for customs and international trade who is leading the Big Four firm's tariff advisory work, told BI that since Trump's announcement on April 2, PwC is "definitely seeing an uptick in demand."

She said tariffs are a multi-dimensional problem, so multiple lines of PwC's business, including finance, tax, logistics, and tech, are in demand, resulting in a "doubling down or tripling down" in interest from clients.

McKinsey & Company launched a "Geopolitics" practice more than a year ago, Cindy Levy, a senior partner at the firm, told BI. "Since then, we've seen interest from both long-standing and new clients — especially around scenario planning, cross-functional response, and navigating an increasingly uncertain global environment," she said.

McKinsey is hearing from companies in several sectors, but most notably from those "highly exposed to trade shifts," including semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, automotive, and electronics. The firm is also seeing "growing interest" from consumer sectors, which are especially sensitive to pricing and sourcing, Levy said.

Rich Lesser, BCG's global chair, told BI that the firm has had several "new conversations" with existing clients. "Trade and tariffs were not a hot topic a year ago," he said.

It's good timing, in a way. As part of the Elon Musk-led effort at the White House DOGE Office to cut costs, federal agencies have been asked to review and justify their spending on consultants.

Several consulting firms earlier told BI that government contracts make up a significant portion of their income, threatening their bottom line. So, increased demand from current corporate clients — and new interest from new ones — for advice on navigating Trump's trade war has been a needed win for consulting firms.

Lesser said clients are largely seeking "insight on how we see this playing out." However, the tariff discussions have also brought "renewed energy" to longer-standing questions about driving productivity and adopting AI, he added.

SIB, a consultancy that specializes in cost-reduction, told BI that it had seen "a noticeable uptick in inbound inquiries since April 2," building on the 43% jump it saw after Trump took office.

"This latest wave of interest is clearly tied to tariff-related cost concerns, as business leaders brace for pricing volatility and its ripple effects across their supply chains and vendor contracts," SIB CEO Shannon Copeland told BI.

At KPMG, the firm's national operations lead, Paul Hencoski, told BI that it's normal to see an uptick in demand when there's a change of government, but that the rise had been "particularly acute" over the last six months. "We're seeing double-digit growth in our revenue and bookings in several sectors, and our pipeline is up year over year," Hencoski said.

Hencoski said he's seen strong demand for the lines of business that are most relevant to tariffs: KPMG's tax and trade practice, supply chain services, and risk and regulatory compliance. "Certainly, any type of economic downturn could affect us, but at the present time, we've seen no material impact," he said.

Businesses want to act now

Clients are largely turning to consulting firms for guidance on how to navigate the uncertainty expected in the near term.

BCG's clients want to "land the 2025 plane in a reasonable way," Lesser said. However, they're also mindful that this is just "one leg of a long-term journey."

While companies are focused on managing immediate disruptions — from supply chain shocks to shifts in the competitive landscape — many are also reassessing their longer-term strategies, including investment in capital and talent.

"Everybody's feeling like this is not a time to be making big investments when you don't know the environment you're operating within," Lesser said. "This starts with capital allocation but even extends to how much hiring to do in an uncertain landscape."

McKinsey's Levy said clients' big concern is staying competitive. "We're seeing companies focus not just on managing disruption, but also on where they can play offense — whether that's diversifying supply chains, moving faster than competitors, or spotting openings in a changing landscape."

PwC's tariff lead said there is demand from existing clients who already have sophisticated custom strategies, but need to work out how to adjust them for the shifting landscape.

Larger companies are concerned about their investment strategies, whether they can hire new people, their manufacturing footprint, and how they can expand operations.

PwC is also hearing from new businesses who weren't previously impacted by tariffs and lack "the muscle memory around how to be strategic in this space," she said.

Bohl said the impact of tariffs could be enough to wipe out smaller companies' ability to keep operating. She said they want to understand the impacts and work out potential strategies.

KPMG's Hencoski said his clients are "looking for calm in the storm."

The strongest demand is coming from the industrial manufacturing sector, where businesses need to find alternative sources for components and materials, and from the consumer retail sector, where it's all about the product supply chain, he said.

There is "absolutely a desire to take action now," Hencoski added.

"Their C-suite, their boards, their shareholders are demanding that they have a plan, and so they're actively digesting the information as it changes every single day and developing a plan of action at the same time," he said.

SIB's CEO also told BI that there is a sense of urgency from clients.

"We're seeing a definite shift toward immediate action. Most leaders recognize that waiting could leave them exposed — especially if vendors are already embedding tariff-related increases into contracts or invoices," Copeland said.

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• President Donald Trump announced a trade agreement with the UK on Thursday.
• Tariffs on UK steel and aluminium exports have been removed, and tariffs on autos reduced to 10%.
• The deal will bring opportunities worth $5 billion to US exporters, Trump's commerce secretary said.

President Donald Trump said he was "thrilled" to have reached a trade deal with the UK.

In a televised phone call with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday, the President said the agreement would bring billions of dollars of increased market access for American exports.

Trump said the UK would eliminate "numerous non-tariff barriers that unfairly discriminated against American products" and fast-track US goods through its customs process.

"There won't be any red tape, things are going to move very quickly both ways," he said.

He thanked Starmer and his team, calling the UK one of America's "closest and most cherished allies."

Starmer thanked Trump and called it a "fantastic, historic day," adding: "I'm so pleased that we've got this deal, we finalized it, and we've built an incredible platform for the future."

Following the call, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick outlined further details of the deal to reporters in the Oval Office.

He said the agreement opened up new markets for ethanol, beef, machinery, and agricultural products, bringing "$5 billion of opportunity to American exporters."

The UK would be buying $10 billion worth of Boeing planes, Lutnick said.

In return, the higher tariff rate of 27.5% on UK cars exported to the US will be reduced to 10%, and tariffs on steel and aluminium reduced to zero.

'Open for business'

The Trump administration's blanket 10% tariff on other goods remains in place.

"This Deal shows that if you respect America, and bring serious proposals to the table, America is OPEN FOR BUSINESS. Many more to come — STAY TUNED!" Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

The UK government has been seeking an agreement to lower tariffs since Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs imposed a 10% levy on UK goods and higher rates of 25% on steel, aluminum, and cars.

Reducing tariffs on cars — the UK's top export to the US, worth almost $12 billion — had been a key priority for Starmer.

Many global leaders have been seeking to negotiate with the Trump administration to lessen the impact of the sweeping tariffs he announced on April 2.

The UK is the first country to formally ease economic tensions with Trump.

Trump's declaration that Thursday's deal would be the "first of many" suggests he's ready to soften his approach to global trade relations.

Last week, the president said he had "potential" trade deals lined up with India, South Korea, and Japan.

Trump's approval rating has taken a hit, and recent polling has found that Americans have soured on his handling of the economy.

Uncertainty still pervades Trump's economic maneuvers. During an Oval Office meeting this week with the new Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, Trump said he didn't need to make trade agreements.

"We don't have to sign deals. They have to sign deals with us. They want a piece of our market — we don't want a piece of their market," he said.

Other countries, such as China, have retaliated rather than negotiate. The US now has tariffs of up to 245% on imports from China, a manufacturing hub. Beijing has retaliated with 125% tariffs on US goods.

For the UK, the deal with the US is its second significant win after it secured a landmark trade deal with India earlier this week.

Negotiating international trade deals has become a key priority for the UK since its 2016 vote to leave the European Union made it necessary to strike new agreements.

• Dell is flattening its organizational structure and cutting down management layers.
• Vice presidents will now have at least 15 direct reports, while other senior staff will have 20 reports.
• A flatter structure will help Dell move faster in an AI-driven world, the company said.

Dell is pushing for a flatter organizational structure with senior managers being asked to oversee larger teams, Business Insider has learned.

Under the changes, vice presidents and above will be required to have at least 15 direct reports, and directors and senior managers will have 20 people reporting to them.

"We continually evolve our business so we're set up to deliver the best innovation, value and service to our customers and partners. This includes redefining how work gets done, with a flatter structure and fewer management layers so we can move faster in today's AI-driven world," a Dell spokesperson told BI.

BI understands that the reorganization will result in fewer management layers, which is intended to speed up decision-making and empower team members to get stuck into work.

Throughout April, divisions across Dell were informed of the changes to their senior management structure.

In one such memo, sent on April 29 and seen by BI, Karen Plotkin, senior vice president of client solutions strategy, announced a reorganization of the Client Solutions Group product operations team, including the departure of a longtime manager.

Some managers have been let go, while others have had their role classification changed from "M" for manager to "I" for individual contributor, which indicates an employee who has no direct reports, BI understands.

One Dell employee, who asked not to be named as they are not authorized to speak to the media, described the new attitude to management as "flatter, leaner, and more with less." Another described the reorg as being focused on "spans and layers," referencing a common term in management for the breadth and depth of an organization's structure.

The restructuring of management is part of a longer-term evolution of Dell's business strategy and structure.

Over the last two years, Dell staff numbers have fallen by 25,000. The company now has about 108,000 global employees.

In August 2024, the company significantly restructured its sales division, which it told workers was necessary to prepare for "the world of AI." As part of the restructuring, Dell laid off workers, though it did not specify how many.

The company told workers in January it was "retiring" hybrid work and called employees to return to the office five days a week from March.

Dell had a hybrid working culture on place for more than a decade prior to the pandemic, employees have told BI.

Dell celebrated its 41st anniversary over the weekend.

"The next 41 will be even bigger and more fun," CEO Michael Dell wrote on X in a post marking the anniversary, adding that the company would be powered by AI.

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• PwC is laying off roughly 2% of its US workforce.
• The workforce reductions are the result of historically low attrition rates.
• The Big Four firm is also slowing future hiring and internship offers, but will honor current offers.

The Big Four firm PwC is laying off roughly 1,500 employees from its US workforce of 75,000, attributing the 2% workforce reduction to historically low rates of people leaving the firm by choice.

The layoffs began on Monday and predominantly target the firm's audit and tax lines, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

All affected staff will be informed by the end of Tuesday via an individual meeting with their talent consultant and a partner on their team, the person said.

"This was a difficult decision, and we made it with care, thoughtfulness, and a deep awareness of its impact on our people, appreciating that historically low levels of attrition over consecutive years have made it necessary to take this step," a PwC spokesperson said.

In an email sent to staff on Monday, Deanna Byrne, PwC's US assurance leader, called the layoffs an "incredibly tough" moment.

"This decision follows a long period of close review — along with actively supporting internal mobility and moving talent to support growth areas. But with historically low attrition and continued market shifts, this is a necessary step to better align our firm for the future," Byrne told assurance staff in the internal email, which BI has reviewed.

An employee in the firm's assurance division described the layoffs as "unnerving." They said jobs in audit and tax had a reputation for being more stable compared to consulting divisions at the Big Four.

"I wouldn't say this aligns with my expectation of a leading professional services firm," the employee told BI. They requested anonymity as they were not permitted to speak to the press.

The employee added that they were not surprised there were layoffs, given that in a recent meeting with their regional sector leader on April 2, there was "discussion of increased pressure on the firm's bottom line as opposed to last year."

A person familiar with the matter told BI that the layoffs also impact some workers from PwC's products and technology (P&T) division as part of a longer-term unravelling of that department.

The person said some division employees have been transferred to other lines of service, and the remaining employees have been let go.

PwC US is also slowing future hiring and internship offers, and the Big Four firm plans to be more selective about appointments in the future, the person added, saying that all existing offers are being honored.

In its latest financial year, annual growth at PwC's Americas division slowed from 10.7% in 2023 to 3.4% in 2024.

Fellow Big Four firms EY and Deloitte have also carried out layoffs and slowed partner appointments in the past year amid a wider consulting industry slowdown.

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• Some Chinese exporters are trying to avoid tariffs by saying their products are made in different countries.
• This is done by creating false country of origin labels, experts told Business Insider.
• Unless value is added to a product in the third country, it's illegal to adopt a new place of origin.

South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam are cracking down on methods used by Chinese exporters to avoid President Donald Trump's high tariffs.

A growing tactic used by some Chinese exporters is to ship products through neighbouring countries to falsely claim the goods are not Chinese and avoid tariffs of up to 145% in place on Chinese goods imported to the US.

Jaya Wen, a professor in the Business, Government, and the International Economy Unit at Harvard Business School, told Business Insider that if goods undergo a "substantial transformation" in the intermediate country, they merit a change in their place of origin.

Wen, who researches trade re-routing, said value-added production has increased since tariffs were introduced and is a legitimate method for Chinese companies to avoid tariffs.

But illegal rerouting and relabeling through a third country, where no value is added to products, also appears to be taking place, she said.

In this strategy, firms take finished products, ship them to Vietnam, for example, and re-label them from "Made in China" to "Made in Vietnam." This was happening before the current wave of tariffs, she said.

The White House's senior trade advisor, Peter Navarro, raised concerns about this process in an interview with CNBC in April, saying that Chinese businesses were "trans-shipping to Vietnam to evade tariffs."

In April, South Korea's customs agency said that it had seized over $20 million worth of products with falsified countries of origin in the first quarter of 2025, local news outlet The Korea Times reported. The majority of products were destined for the US.

"We are seeing a sharp increase in recent cases where our country is used as a bypass for products to avoid different tariffs and restrictions because of the US government's trade policy changes," the agency said in a press briefing, according to Reuters.

The agency's commissioner, Ko Kwang-hyo, said there were "numerous cases where the origins of Chinese products were falsified as Korean," The Korea Times reported.

Korea's Customs Agency said it would launch a special investigation unit to crack down on the practice, and would enhance intelligence sharing with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Similar crackdowns on counterfeit product labelling are taking place in Thailand and Vietnam,

Three directives issued in March and April by Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade urged trade agencies to monitor and tighten controls around place of origin fraud to protect the reputation of Vietnamese goods.

Thailand's Department of Foreign Trade is taking over all approvals for Certificates of Origin (C/Os) for US-bound exports and has expanded a watchlist of high-risk products, local outlet Nation Thailand reported.

US authorities determine the underlying place of origin through a "highly fact-specific analysis that needs to be done at a detailed level," said Mark Segrist, a partner at the import and export trade law firm Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg.

If US Customs and Border Protection begins to question legitimate country-of-origin shipments coming out of third countries based on fears that the goods may be Chinese, this could put shipments from those countries at risk of much higher scrutiny, Segrist told BI.

That could lead to increased detentions, additional delays, and increased costs for US importers, he said.

Asian countries are also cracking down in an effort to prevent further sanctions, negotiate lower tariffs on their own imports, and secure trade deals with the US, both experts told BI.

Thailand and Vietnam have become manufacturing hot spots for many multinational companies diversifying their operations outside China. Heightened surveillance of illegal re-labelling would also help boost local manufacturers, Wen said.

• PwC has been tracking its employees' office attendance for three months.
• The firm's HR boss said three days in the office is best for employee engagement.
• PwC's internal data also showed that working in the office boosted productivity, she said.

The Big Four firm PwC has been collecting data for three months on its latest RTO mandate, and the results are in — three days in the office is the sweet spot for employee engagement.

In January, PwC increased its weekly in-office requirement for its 23,000 UK employees to a minimum of three days. The accounting firm had previously asked staff to come into the office two or three days a week.

Since the new policy began, PwC has been monitoring employees' attendance through their badge swipes into the office and shared IP addresses, if staff are out at client sites, Phillippa O'Connor, PwC's UK chief people officer, told a UK government committee on home-based working.

Staff can use a self-declaration form to highlight whether there's a valid reason they can't come into the office, which will be reflected in the data.

After the first quarter of monitoring employees, O'Connor said there was "a really clear correlation between time in the office and the utilization of our people."

PwC also cross-referenced the attendance data with preliminary data from its annual employee engagement survey and found that those coming in three days a week were the most engaged.

"The initial data there shows us that where we have people in the office three days a week, they are more engaged," she said. "Where they're in the office five days a week, they're less engaged."

The accounting giant believes that in-person work for the majority of the week is best for its business and clients and for driving innovation, O'Connor said.

It's also "absolutely critical" for training the 1,000 graduates who join the firm's UK branch every year, she added.

O'Connor told the government committee that this was "not a one policy." PwC is in "listening mode," and providing flexibility and exemptions, particularly for parents and neurodivergent employees, is key to the firm's approach, she said.

Lindsay Pattison, the chief people officer of the advertising giant WPP, also gave evidence to the committee, which was set up to consider the effects and development of home-based working in the UK.

WPP has asked employees to return to the office four days a week, including two Fridays a month. After the policy was introduced, thousands signed a petition calling on the firm to rethink its four-day RTO mandate.

Pattison said that WPP was monitoring general email traffic and employees' use of AI tools and that both measures started to decline on Fridays when staff worked from home.

PwC declined to comment.

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• KPMG and the University of Melbourne surveyed 48,000 people globally about how they are using AI.
• The study found that AI is now widely used in the workplace, but not always in an honest way.
• The study found that many workers hide their use of AI and present AI-generated work as their own.

A major study into AI use in the workplace found that most workers surveyed aren't completely honest with their bosses and colleagues about how they use it.

KPMG's Trust in AI report, which it carried out with the University of Melbourne, surveyed 48,340 people across 47 countries between November 2024 and January 2025.

It found that more than half of employees asked, 57%, admitted to hiding their use of AI at work and present AI-generated content as their own.

KPMG says the report, titled "Trust, attitudes, and use of artificial intelligence: a Global Study 2025," is one of the most comprehensive looks at attitudes towards AI in the workplace to date.

It shows just how embedded AI has become in the modern working world — 58% of people now intentionally use AI for work, and about a third do so at least once a week, the study found.

Nicole Gillespie, one of the study's authors and a professor of management and chair of trust at the University of Melbourne's business school, said there is a surprising level of "inappropriate, complex, and non-transparent" activity in how employees use AI.

Covert use of AI at work is happening because there's pressure to use the tools and keep up with others' progress, Gillespie said. Employees feel that unless they start using these new tools, they'll be left behind, putting their jobs at risk, she said.

If employers ban the use of Gen AI, employees have to hide what they're doing. But Gillespie added that there's also "a seductive element" to why they're not owning up to using AI tools.

She said that once people start seeing the benefits, it's tempting to keep using AI, even if they know they're breaking company policies by doing so.

Hiding how you use AI creates 'significant risk'

Only 47% of employees globally say they have received AI training, the study found, which means many are just taking it into their own hands and using the technology without guidance.

The data wasn't positive about their capabilities: 66% of employees said they use AI tools without evaluating the accuracy of responses, 48% said they have uploaded company information into public AI tools, and 56% reported making mistakes in their work due to AI.

"That is really concerning because that's where the organization is exposed to significant risk," said Sam Gloede, the global trusted AI transformation leader at KPMG International, who worked with Gillespie on the study.

Gloede said that in addition to errors, data breaches, and compliance risks, a big concern is that the lack of transparency around AI use in the workplace will reinforce distrust in AI systems.

Trust is a strategic asset for organizations, allowing them to innovate and grow, said Gloede. When it comes to AI, users need to trust that the technical capabilities are there, that it's fit for purpose, and it's reliable, she said.

"So much of what we do both in organizations, but more broadly in society is underpinned by trust," added Gillespie, who is a world-renowned expert in organizational trust.

"In the last five to 10 years, it's become a centerpiece of pretty much every board. They recognize the importance of not only building but also preserving stakeholder trust in the organization," said Gillespie.

Better AI literacy leads to better outcomes

To build trust around AI and get accurate and effective results, organizations have to provide better AI training and governance, the two experts said.

The study found that literacy and governance are lagging in workplaces, with half of those surveyed saying they don't understand AI and how it's used. Only 2 in 5 have reported any AI-related training or education.

Gillespie said employees need both foundational training on what AI is and its ethical and responsible use, and role-based training so that everyone understands how to use the technology to increase productivity and avoid errors.

"If we really want that deep education, it has to go beyond just the training. It's also about helping people to be using AI in the workplace transparently, to be using it openly, to be sharing their learning, to have communities of practice, to have structures set up where they can experiment and learn and make mistakes without it creating risks," she said.

In emerging economies like India, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia, trust levels in AI were much higher than in advanced economies — 82% compared to 65%.

Gloede highlighted that this also correlated with higher literacy and training levels. "It really calls out that the literacy and the training is a vital ingredient to improve that adoption and success," she said.

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• Companies are describing economic conditions as "volatile" and "impossible to predict."
• Firms like GM and UPS are overhauling earnings forecasts amid uncertainty caused by Trump's tariffs.
• Here's a list of companies that have lowered or pulled their guidance as a result.

Volatile. Challenging. Uncertain.

This is the language of corporate earnings calls amid President Donald Trump's tariffs.

As a result of the uncertainty, companies are lowering or outright scrapping their earnings forecasts.

Here's a look at the big brands that have made adjustments to their guidance in recent earnings reports.

Canada Goose

Luxury retailer Canada Goose pulled back its fiscal year 2026 guidance because of "macroeconomic uncertainty and dynamic consumer spending patterns brought on by the unpredictable global trade environment" according to a press release. The company did not explicitly cite tariffs in the release.

Canada Goose reported strong fiscal fourth-quarter earnings, with total revenue increasing 7.4% compared to the same period last year.

GM

GM said it would suspend earnings guidance for 2025 and freeze a $4 billion share buyback as it assesses the impact of Trump's tariffs on imported cars.

Two days later, after the White House announced measures to ease the blow of the tariffs, GM said it had slashed its guidance for this year and had a current tariff exposure of between $4 billion and $5 billion.

Like other Detroit automakers, GM, which builds several models for the US market in Mexico and Canada, is highly exposed to the tariffs. Barclays analysts previously warned that the levies could wipe out "effectively all" of GM, Ford, and Jeep and RAM owner Stellantis' profits.

UPS

Parcel giant UPS said it would pull its financial guidance in its first quarter earnings release, as well as announcing plans to cut 20,000 jobs throughout 2025.

"Given the current macro-economic uncertainty, the company is not providing any updates to its previously issued consolidated full-year outlook," the company said.

It reported virtually flat revenues of $21.5 billion, a drop of 0.7% compared to the same period in 2024.

P&G

Procter & Gamble now forecasts flat sales growth in fiscal year 2025, compared to a previous projection of a 2% to 4% increase. The consumer goods conglomerate, which owns brands like Tide and Charmin, also cut its core EPS outlook to $6.72 to $6.82, down from $6.91 to $7.05.

"We will have to pull every lever we have in our arsenal to mitigate the impact of tariffs within our cost structure and P&L," P&G's CFO, Andre Schulten, said on a call with reporters.

In the company's earnings release, CEO Jon Moeller pointed to a "challenging and volatile consumer and geopolitical environment."

"We're making appropriate adjustments to our near-term outlook to reflect underlying market conditions while remaining confident in the longer-term growth prospects for our brands and the markets where we compete," he said.

PepsiCo

The food and beverage giant warned of higher production costs and lower consumer spending amid "increasingly dynamic and complex geopolitical and macroeconomic conditions."

"As we look ahead, we expect more volatility and uncertainty, particularly related to global trade developments, which we expect will increase our supply chain costs," CEO Ramon Laguarta said in the company's earnings release. "At the same time, consumer conditions in many markets remain subdued and similarly have an uncertain outlook."

PepsiCo lowered its core EPS forecast for the year to a 3% decline, where it previously forecast a single-digit increase.

"Relative to where we were three months ago, we probably are not feeling as good about the consumer," PepsiCo's CFO, Jamie Caulfield, said in a post-earnings call.

Chipotle

Chipotle lowered its guidance for the fiscal year and now forecasts a sales increase in the low single digits, compared to low- to mid-single digits previously forecasted.

"In February, we began to see that the elevated level of uncertainty felt by consumers are starting to impact their spending habits," interim CEO Scott Boatwright said on the company's earnings call. "We could see this in our visitation study where saving money because of concerns around the economy was the overwhelming reason consumers were reducing the frequency of restaurant visits."

United Airlines

United Airlines took the rare step of offering two sets of outlooks: one for a stable macroeconomic environment and one for a recessionary environment.

"The Company's guidance is based on consensus market macroeconomic expectations," it said in a securities filing. "However, a single consensus no longer exists, and therefore the Company's expectation has become bimodal — either the U.S. economy will remain weaker but stable, or the U.S. may enter into a recession. The Company is therefore providing two separate guidance benchmarks based on these two different macroeconomic views."

The filing added that the macro environment "is impossible to predict this year with any degree of confidence."

Delta Air Lines

Delta was one of the first airlines to pull its guidance when announcing Q1 earnings.

"Given current uncertainty, Delta is not reaffirming full year 2025 financial guidance and will provide an update later in the year as visibility improves," the carrier said in an earnings release.

CEO Ed Bastian said in the company's earnings call that it would be "premature" to project the year "given the broad macro uncertainty."

American Airlines

American Airlines also withdrew its full-year guidance, noting that it plans to provide an update "as the economic outlook becomes clearer."

"Aircraft cost too much already," CEO Robert Isom said on the earnings call when asked about tariffs. "I don't want to pay any more for aircraft. It doesn't make sense."

He added, "And certainly, we're pulling guidance. Certainly, it's not something we would intend to absorb. And I'll tell you, it's not something that I would expect our customers to welcome. So we've got to work on this."

In an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box," Isom said "uncertainty" was the reason American pulled their guidance.

Southwest Airlines

The airline has withdrawn its guidance on full-year 2025 and 2026 earnings before interest and taxes.

"Amid the current macroeconomic uncertainty, it is difficult to forecast given recent and short-lived booking trends," it said in an earnings release.

JetBlue

JetBlue joined many of the country's airlines by pulling its financial forecast for the year in earnings on April 29.

CEO Joanna Geraghty cited "the macroeconomic uncertainty," and said the firm was looking at further capacity reductions due to lower demand, as well as evaluating its schedule for retiring planes.

Like for Southwest, the uncertainty comes at a challenging time, with both airlines working to turn around their lack of profitability.

Air Canada

In early May, Air Canada lowered its annual profit forecast for 2025 amid the impact of tariffs and slowing demand for travel to the US.

"The noise around tariffs and trade disputes definitely had an impact, but also we believe some travellers avoided the US simply because it was expensive, with the Canadian dollar trading at levels not seen since 2020," Michael Rousseau, Air Canada's president and CEO, said on an earnings call.

Air Canada lowered its annual earnings outlook to between C$3.2 billion and C$3.6 billion, equivalent to between $2.6 billion and $2.3 billion. This is roughly C$200 million, or $144 million, lower than earlier estimates.

Thermo Fisher

CEO Mark Casper said on a recent earnings call that the updated guidance "incorporates the expected net impact of current tariffs and the changes driven by the current policy focus of the US."

Thermo Fisher said it expects a $400 million revenue headwind as tariffs hit the sales of products made in the US and sold in China. It also expects tariffs to raise the cost of parts it sources in China.

Snap

Snap, the company behind Snapchat, declined to issue guidance for Q2 in its first-quarter earnings report on April 29.

"Given‬‭ the‬‭ uncertainty‬‭ with‬‭ respect‬‭ to‬‭ how‬‭ macro‬‭ economic‬‭ conditions‬‭ may‬‭ evolve‬‭ in‬‭ the‬‭ months‬‭ ahead,‬‭ and‬‭ how‬‭ this‬‭ may‬ impact‬‭ advertising‬‭ demand‬‭ more‬‭ broadly,‬‭ we‬‭ do‬‭ not‬‭ intend‬‭ to‬‭ share‬‭ formal‬‭ financial‬‭ guidance‬‭ for‬‭ Q2," the company said in a letter to investors.

Snap also said that while the company's revenue has continued to grow, it has "experienced‭ headwinds‬‭ to‬‭ start‬‭ the‬‭ current‬‭ quarter."

Stellantis

The auto giant, which owns companies including Jeep, Dodge, Fiat, Chrysler, and Peugeot, said on April 30 it was suspending its financial guidance. Stellantis said it was rolling back the guidance because of the uncertainty tariffs are causing.

"The company is highly engaged with policymakers on tariff policies, while taking action to reduce impacts," the carmaker said in a statement.

Mercedes

Mercedes-Benz joined the list of automakers that have withdrawn their full-year guidance amid tariff-related uncertainty. The German luxury car brand said on April 30 that it can't offer reliable estimates in the current environment.

On a call after the announcement, Mercedes' chief financial officer said its previous guidance wouldn't have changed without the tariffs.

Ford

Ford is the latest auto giant to suspend guidance and outline how tariffs will impact its bottom line.

In its first-quarter earnings release on May 5, the American carmaker said it would suspend its full-year financial guidance because of supply chain disruptions and the possibility of increased tariffs in the US. The company said that retaliatory tariffs and other restrictions from foreign governments also pose risks.

Ford estimated that full-year adjusted earnings before interest and taxes will take a $1.5 billion hit because of tariffs.

"These are substantial industry risks, which could have significant impacts on financial results, and that make updating full year guidance challenging right now," Ford wrote in the earnings release.

American Eagle

American Eagle withdrew its guidance for the year "due to macro uncertainty," according to a press release, but didn't mention tariffs. The clothing retailer said that it anticipates revenue to decline roughly 5% in the first quarter compared to last year, coming in at approximately $1.1 billion. Same-store sales are expected to decline around 3%.

CEO Jay Schottenstein said that the company has had trouble selling items and now has excess inventory, and that "we are clearly disappointed with our execution in the first quarter."

• Goldman Sachs' vice chair, Richard Gnodde, is planning to leave the UK for Italy.
• He is the latest wealthy individual to depart Britain since changes to taxes on foreign earnings were announced.
• The UK is set to lose almost a fifth of its millionaires by 2028, a recent UBS report found.

A top London-based Goldman Sachs executive is planning to depart the UK in another blow to the City's status.

Richard Gnodde, who became the investment bank's vice chair in January after many years running its international operations, is relocating to Milan, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The move was first reported by City AM.

"Given his new role, Richard will be primarily focused on growth opportunities for the firm across Europe. He will continue to spend time with our team in the London office," a Goldman Sachs spokesperson told Business Insider.

The South African-born banker first joined Goldman Sachs in London in 1987. He was co-CEO of Goldman Sachs International until a leadership shake-up that was announced in January.

The departure of one of the City of London's leading figures will do nothing to abate concerns about the UK's declining political and economic power.

The Labour government came to power last year, vowing to ignite economic growth and boost productivity. In February, the Bank of England halved its growth forecast for 2025 to 0.75%.

While many developed countries are set to gain more wealthy people this decade, the UK is forecast to lose 17% of its millionaires by 2028, UBS' 2024 wealth report found.

There has been a series of departures of high-profile individuals from the UK since the government announced changes to a longstanding tax policy that effectively allowed rich foreigners to avoid UK tax.

Non-domicile status, or non-doms, refers to people who live in the UK but have a permanent home in another country.

Previously, they only paid UK taxes on what they earned in the country.

The new rules, which came into effect on April 6, abolished non-dom status and tightened rules around foreign trusts.

The tens of thousands of "non-doms" are now set to incur tax on their foreign earnings, which has prompted some to leave the UK.

Italy has taken the opposite approach, making it a popular destination for Europe's ultrawealthy.

Since 2017, it has offered a "golden visa" program that taxes foreign income at a flat annual rate of 200,000 euros (about $227,000).

Nassef Sawiris, the billionaire owner of the soccer club Aston Villa, recently moved his residence from London to Italy and Abu Dhabi. He cited changes to the non-dom rules in an interview with the Financial Times, but pointed to the former government's attempts rather than those brought in this month.

Other reported departures from the UK include the billionaire steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and real estate investor Asif Aziz.

• Being a partner at Big Four firms is becoming less lucrative and harder to achieve.
• As economic headwinds hit the industry, firms are cutting partners, and payouts are dwindling.
• Big Four partnership is "a club that you can't get into anymore," one former PwC partner told BI.

Making partner at a Big Four firm has long been the consulting industry's golden ticket to prestige and big paydays, but amid economic headwinds and slowing demand, it's not what it once was.

In their 2024 financial years, total revenue growth at all four of the world's leading professional services firms — EY, Deloitte, PwC, and KPMG — dropped.

The slowdown hasn't just been bad for the books. It's created a problem in the partner ranks at the Big Four.

Partners are the most senior employees at the firms and are responsible for networking with clients and bringing in business. Those with equity status get a share of annual profits, meaning that as margins have tightened, partners' annual payouts have declined.

The total number of partners at three of the major firms' UK branches has also dropped, according to a Business Insider analysis of publicly available data.

In 2024, 124 partners left PwC, more than in the previous two years combined. EY's partner total dropped by 43 in 2024, while KPMG marked at least its third consecutive year of declines in partner numbers.

Deloitte UK increased its total partner numbers by 6 in 2024, but that was a slowdown compared to the previous two years, when the firm added a total of 69 partners.

Paul Webster, a former EY employee now a managing partner at the senior talent recruitment firm, Page Executive, told BI the departures mark a significant change in the partnership model compared to 10 or 20 years ago.

"It was basically once you got to partner, you had a job for life. It was very rare that partners would get laid off," Webster said.

Alan Paton, who until recently was a partner in PwC's financial services division, told BI that partners are being encouraged to retire amid the tight market conditions.

"Either partners get paid less, or there are less partners. Typically, partners don't want to get paid less," he said.

Paton, now CEO of Qodea, a consultancy specializing in Google Cloud solutions, believes that the pressure to retire will continue to increase, and this pattern will become the norm over the next three years. Partnership at the Big Four has become "a club that you can't get into anymore," he said.

The rise of non-equity partners

As more partners retire, fewer are filling the ranks to replace them. Instead, the next generation of senior professionals is being held back in the role of non-equity partner, meaning they receive a salary rather than profit-sharing status.

James O'Dowd, founder of the global executive recruiter Patrick Morgan, which specializes in senior partner hiring and industry analysis, told Business Insider that non-equity partner roles have become more prevalent over recent years and have picked up as the market slowed down. EY has had non-equity partners for over a decade, while the role has existed at KPMG since 2021.

"From the partners' perspective, if they continue to admit more equity partners, that dilutes the profit pool, and therefore, they make less money," said O'Dowd. Instead, firms are using the non-equity title as "a stopgap" that allows them to give out the partner title but not share the profits per the traditional partnership model, he said.

There's a lot of frustration among non-equity partners as they see their path to partnership get further away, O'Dowd added. Whereas 20 years ago, Big Four employees could make equity partner by around 35 years old, now they're probably looking at their early forties, he said.

PwC, which does not have a non-equity partner status, has introduced a "managing director" grade, which comes into effect on July 1 this year.

O'Dowd said the role would ease the pressure on "what was a very burgeoning director grade where they couldn't afford to make them an equity partner," said O'Dowd.

A PwC spokesperson told BI that the new role reflects the firm's commitment to adapting to the evolving business landscape.

"Our new MD grade offers our senior, high-performing staff an alternative to partnership. The role will help us provide more diverse career opportunities, ensuring we attract and retain the very best talent."

Younger professionals are less motivated to make partner

The shake-ups to the partnership model are changing how junior employees view the executive role, Wesbter and O'Dowd told BI.

O'Dowd said that the prestige of being a partner in a major firm isn't what it was 10 years ago.

Younger professionals are less motivated by the title and more interested in meritocratic compensation models, O'Dowd said.

"The problem with the partnership is that it's not inherently meritocratic. The profits are distributed often based on tenure and perceived contribution. What you're seeing now in the market are lots of alternatives to the bigger firms that pay a wage that's much more closely correlated to performance," he said.

Webster added that there are also concerns about the partnership model's risk-sharing nature after a series of major auditing scandals and subsequent regulatory fines.

Webster said his sister, a PwC partner in Australia, has seen her bonus get "absolutely crushed" in the fallout from the firm's 2024 tax scandal involving work with the Australian government.

But Paton, the former PwC partner, disagreed with the notion that juniors aren't looking to become partners.

Paton told BI that it is still "super aspirational" to be a partner at a Big Four firm and is viewed as a "tremendously prestigious job to have."

However, he acknowledged that, while aspirational, the role is no longer as achievable. Partner status is likely to be changed further by the impact of AI on professional services, he added.

"I think people realize that, even if that's something they aspire to, it may be something that won't actually exist in the future."

EY declined to comment when contacted by BI. KPMG and Deloitte did not respond to requests for comment.

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• Many consultants and accountants strive to become a partner at one of the Big Four firms.
• BI asked executive recruiters and a former PwC partner for their tips for making it to the top rank.
• Their advice includes developing a commercial mindset, being a team player, and learning to navigate internal politics.

Making it to partner at one of the Big Four professional services firms — Deloitte, EY, PwC, and KPMG — is the pinnacle of success for many consultants and accountants.

Partners are the firms' most senior employees. Those who hold equity in the business traditionally get a vote in strategic matters and a share of annual profits. That meant each of Deloitte's equity partners in the UK received the equivalent of $1.3 million last year.

Becoming a partner is notoriously difficult, and is only getting more competitive as structural shake-ups and slowing growth have reduced partner numbers and annual payouts.

Business Insider asked two recruiters who place partners at the Big Four firms and a former PwC partner who recently left the firm for the advice they'd give early-career employees who want the coveted role.

Networking

James O'Dowd, founder of the global executive recruiter Patrick Morgan, which specializes in senior partner hiring and industry analysis, told BI that two key traits were needed to become a Big Four partner: a "commercial nature" and an understanding of "the politics within the business."

"A lot of your success is about the support and encouragement you get from senior individuals and the individuals around you as much as it is your competence," he said.

You can be technically good, but unless you invest time building those internal networks, you won't progress as quickly, O'Dowd said.

Mohamed Kande, who made it all the way to become PwC's global chairman last year, wrote in a 2021 LinkedIn post that several executives in the firm helped him "learn the many areas of our business" and "helped me grow and provided me with tremendous opportunities to advance my career."

As a junior, you should start putting your hand up to do the tasks other people don't want to do, said O'Dowd. Over your career, that will build you a reputation as someone who can get stuff done, he added.

Paul Webster is a former EY employee who's now a managing partner at Page Executive, a senior talent recruitment firm. He said there was no doubt that networking was a necessary skill at the Big Four.

Webster, who has worked in the advisory world for the past 20 years, advised employees to start incorporating more networking and client events into their schedules, and "be good at schmoozing."

You should also draw on these social skills to be a team player, Webster added. Whereas other industries have more of a focus on individual performance, he said the Big Four don't want to see you trying to get ahead by stepping on someone else's toes.

"You're trying to help the team win so that the firm gets ahead. They particularly venerate collaboration and an extremely collegiate style."

Develop a commercial mindset

"Ultimately, a partner in a Big Four is a sales role," O'Dowd told BI. "Your sole focus is on winning and nurturing client relationships."

He said a Big Four career meant transitioning from doer to revenue generator to seller.

"As you progress through those levels, you're increasingly managing people and then eventually the onus is on not only managing but bringing in money," so developing those skills from an early point will help to set you apart, O'Dowd said.

Even if everyday tasks don't require commercial skills, he advised junior employees to get as much exposure as they can to the commercial side of projects by attending client-facing meetings and connecting with people who are known for doing it really well.

O'Dowd added that senior partners tend to frown on those who work from home, preferring people to demonstrate the interpersonal skills necessary for commercial business, so going to the office is a good idea.

Webster said the focus on business skills has become even more pertinent over the past decade.

"Even when you're getting up to senior manager grade, they now start to expect you to have some level of a Rolodex or some contacts or some sort of ability to bring in business even before you get to partner," he said.

Climbing the ranks isn't the only option

Working your way up the ranks internally isn't the only way to a Big Four partnership.

Alan Paton joined PwC as an equity partner from Google. He worked in AI cloud capabilities in its financial services division before leaving the Big Four firm this year.

He told BI that joining the firm required more than a year of individual interviews, panel interviews, personality and academic references — and that was while being "fast-tracked."

Every hiring decision is based on the business case, so to become a partner from an external company, you have to have specific skills the firm is lacking, Paton told BI.

He added that the firms are desperate for high-quality people with cloud, AI, data, and tech skills, but anything else will not get you very far.

He added it was "pretty tough" to break into the Big Four from a smaller consulting firm if your work consists only of "generic consulting."

O'Dowd said Big Four employees should be thinking carefully about positioning themselves and their skill sets.

"Think strategically about your progression and the area you're filling versus who else is in the organisation," he said. "If I'm smart and I'm still developing my capability, I might position myself into an area where I know there's a gap."

In response to a request for comment, KPMG US's vice chair of talent and culture, Sandy Torchia, said the firm aimed to empower partners with three essential mindsets.

"These mindsets — referred to as 'owner, operator, steward' — are vital to the partnership's strength and provide our partners with meaningful connections to KPMG throughout their careers and beyond," she said.

We also recognize that career aspirations evolve. By fostering a multi-disciplinary firm with diverse career pathways, we not only better support our clients but also offer our professionals layered opportunities throughout their journey."

PwC, EY, and Deloitte did not respond to requests for comment.

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• President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs have had American consumers bracing for price increases.
• Kristin Bohl, PwC's tariff lead, told BI that businesses have other options besides raising prices.
• Her advice includes getting tariff refunds, as well as delaying and reducing payments.

Businesses facing President Donald Trump's aggressive tariffs have a key question to answer — do we pass the cost onto customers?

Doing this doesn't solve every problem for businesses and, in some cases, can alienate cost-conscious shoppers.

Kristin Bohl, a PwC partner for customs and international trade who is leading the Big Four firm's tariff advisory work, told Business Insider that there are many options to mitigate tariffs while avoiding price increases.

While there are numerous options, three of Bohl's top tips for surviving tariffs can be summarized as: refund, defer, and reduce.

Get a refund

Bohl said that one option was to pay the tariffs but get a refund.

"If you import your products here in the US and you subsequently export or destroy those products, you can claim duty drawback, which is up to a 99% refund of the duties paid at import," she said.

Bohl said this was an extremely effective strategy for companies that had the requisite fact pattern during the China tariffs implemented during Trump's first term.

For businesses that are net importers, this option would be more challenging, she added.

Bohl also cautioned that not all tariffs are subject to duty drawback — the tariffs introduced in February, the 10% that got amped up to 20% on China and Hong Kong, as well as the 25% on Canada and Mexico wouldn't be eligible.

The new universal and reciprocal tariffs are eligible, she said.

Delay payment of the tariffs

Businesses can look into how to defer paying tariffs.

Things like bonded warehousing or foreign trade zones allow businesses to bring products into the United States but defer the payment of duties and fees until a product gets withdrawn for consumption in the US, the PwC expert told BI.

"If it gets re-exported, you never pay the tariffs. But if it does get consumed here, you've at least deferred your payment, so there's a cash flow benefit."

Reduce the amount of tariffs

Bohl's final suggestion was that businesses look at how to reduce costs that incur fees under tariffs.

Consider things like transfer pricing or unbundling to determine whether adjustments can be made to ultimately pay lower tariffs, she said.

"When you import something today, and you declare your price, can you unbundle from that price things that are not considered dutiable and not part of your customs value?" Bohl said.

Reducing is a point of focus for a lot of companies because it requires a lot of different departments in a company to be a part of the discussion.

There's no 'one-size-fits-all' fix

Outside these three key areas, Bohl emphasized that there was a broad spectrum of potential solutions.

"There are myriad strategies ranging from short-term, no regrets, easy to unwind all the way up to pretty significant investments of both time and money to get those things up and running."

Leaders have to sit down and work out where on that spectrum they fall, she said.

"It is absolutely not a one-size-fits-all answer. There is huge variability depending on your products, your industry, and the size of your consumer base," she said.

One long-term option is to move manufacturing to countries with lower tariffs or even the US.

"Either move your production or sourcing to a country that doesn't have tariffs, which quickly just became nowhere, or you manufacture here in the US," said Bohl.

Businesses can also have conversations with their vendors about their ability to work together to absorb some of the tariff cost.

Right now, the PwC leader said most clients are focused on short-term solutions. They are thinking about long-term options but weren't making long-term moves "because of the uncertainty," she told BI.

As if to underline that uncertainty, on Wednesday, Trump announced a 90-day pause on the higher tariff rates he introduced for roughly 60 of the US's trading partners last week.

A blanket 10% tariff remains on most countries, and tariffs on goods for China have been raised to 125%.

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• Rachel Cohen publicly quit her Big Law job over her firm's response to Trump.
• Cohen said she called her parents for advice before sending the resignation letter she later posted online.
• She said she had tried "everything else possible to not torch a career."

Rachel Cohen, who quit Big Law over her firm's response to Donald Trump's battle with the profession, said she called her parents before quitting to be sure she was doing the right thing.

Cohen quit Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in March and posted her resignation letter on LinkedIn. She said she was quitting because she believed the firm had not responded properly to Trump's threats against firms.

In an episode of the "Rapid Response" podcast released Tuesday, Cohen said she first called her parents for advice, saying she wanted to be sure she'd done "everything else possible to not torch a career."

Cohen described her parents as "white people who live in Ohio, who have a lot of faith in systems," and said that they were former lawyers who worked as Judge Advocate General's Corps attorneys in the Air Force.

"I said, 'I am not calling to ask if this action might get me fired. I'm calling to ask, does it feel unfair? Is there something else I should exhaust first?" Cohen said. She didn't say what their response was.

Cohen said that before resigning, she reached out internally to "people in management" at Skadden to ask how she could help with what she expected would be an "industry-wide response" to Trump's executive orders against Big Law firms.

She said she received a response thanking her for her perspective. Skadden did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Cohen also helped circulate an open letter among associates at top firms condemning their employers for inaction and started making some media appearances to discuss the situation.

Her decision to resign came after Paul Weiss, another elite law firm, agreed to a list of demands in exchange for Trump rescinding his executive order against the firm.

"I'm thinking what's the next proactive step? And I went home and then outlined, what are my asks for the firm? What should we be doing?" Cohen said.

In her resignation letter, Cohen said she would not leave if Skadden provided a "satisfactory response to the current moment."

Trump has targeted law firms he views as aligned with his political opponents by revoking their security clearances and calling for a review of their government contracts.

Several Big Law firms, including Skadden, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, and Paul Weiss, have cut deals with the President to protect their business, prompting accusations from legal professionals that they are capitulating to Trump.

Other firms, like Perkins Coie, have challenged the administration's directives, alleging in lawsuits that the executive orders are intended to chill free speech and deter clients from doing business with them.

More than 500 law firms have signed a brief denouncing Trump's targeting of Perkins Coie and saying they must join together to "preserve the integrity of the American legal system."

Cohen has remained vocal on social media about the ongoing challenges to the legal profession since she quit.

She said on the podcast that she doesn't know what her next career move will be. Cohen did not respond to a request for comment.

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• The Trump administration is overhauling how much the government spends on consultants.
• BI trawled through the DOGE website to look at which services are being slashed.
• Some DEI and energy-related contracts have been cut, but IT and digital services are the stand-out themes.

DOGE is taking an ax to consulting, and the contracts being targeted show a major realignment in how the federal government wants to work with consultants under President Donald Trump.

Business Insider analyzed the data available on the White House DOGE office's website to work out two things: what services DOGE deems a waste of money and, more broadly, what the government has been paying consultants to do.

In the weeks following Trump's inauguration, contracts providing services related to DEIA and renewable energy were the first to be canceled.

IT and digital services have come under scrutiny and faced cuts in recent weeks.

Another trend in the data is cuts to blanket purchase agreements — an acquisition method that enables the government to easily purchase recurring products.

"You're looking at a complete re-architecting of the services at the federal level," Michael Mische, a former partner at KPMG and professor at USC's Marshall School, told BI.

10 of the federal government's highest-paid consultancies are under particular scrutiny in the consulting crackdown, and so BI's analysis focused on their contracts. The list includes Deloitte, Accenture, and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Here are five examples that help demonstrate what services are being targeted:

General Dynamics, computer systems design

The biggest estimated savings made from a single contract with one of the 10 consultancies so far comes from a General Dynamics IT contract.

DOGE claims to have saved $69.1 million from modifying a contract providing a "portfolio of integrated value-oriented technologies" to the Department of Education.

General Dynamics was "responsible for the technical management and integration of pivot IT infrastructure services," per a description on the federal procurement data system.

Leidos, IT support services

Leidos holds a contract to provide "professional support services" to the Department of Health and Human Services, which aims to improve the government's capabilities to "speed research that can improve the health of Americans."

Services include security requirements, service desk support, application development and maintenance, local area network infrastructure support, IT infrastructure support, and cloud services.

The requirement for IT support services for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) appears to have been modified, saving $58.9 million from the multi-year contract, according to DOGE's estimate.

Booz Allen Hamilton, business operations support

$308,469 of services have been cut from a Booz Allen Hamilton contract with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

According to DOGE, the contract was a blanket purchase agreement with a ceiling of $660,000. The contract's description said it aims to "support the planning for and improvements in business operations across the FDA."

Booz Allen Hamilton makes most of its $10 billion in annual revenue from the US government.

Guidehouse, DEI website support

DOGE estimates that $400,000 has been saved from a $1.2 million contract to provide "Diversity Equity Inclusion and Accessibility website and strategic planning" services to the Department of Commerce.

This contract was altered on 31 January 2025, soon after Trump signed executive orders targeting DEI initiatives for federal employees.

Similar examples include a contract for Booz Allen Hamilton to implement DEIA analytics on one of NASA's data platforms and a contract for Deloitte to provide DEIA training for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Deloitte, staffing support for financial reporting

Deloitte was contracted to provide "a temporary staff augmentation solution to support budget operations" at the Export-Import Bank of the US.

One of the federal government's common uses of contractors is to outsource to them for employees with technical expertise.

Deloitte contractors were directly involved in contributing to accurate financial reporting and ensuring transparency and compliance in budget matters.

$1.4 million has been saved from changes to the contract, roughly half of its maximum ceiling, according to DOGE.

According to BI's analysis, of the 10 firms, Deloitte has had the highest number of contracts cut or modified so far.

Why tech services?

Mische, who has been advising some of the affected firms in DC, told BI that these trends signal a shift toward a more commercial, value-driven approach employing consultants.

Mische said the government has been operating with a "patchwork" of systems, processes, and open-ended contracts. He said that the approach to improving and automating federal processes has been to follow the easiest path without addressing the underlying systems, known in business as "paving the cowpath."

"The process doesn't change, the organization doesn't change, the service outcomes don't change. But yet we've spent hundreds of billions of dollars doing it," said Mische.

The existing setup is not wholly the consultants' fault, he added. They suggest alternatives, but 99% of the time the answer is, "If you don't want to do the work, we'll give it to somebody else."

The Trump administration wants to overhaul how those services are delivered and prepare for more advanced technologies, eliminating the need for so many individual service contracts, he said.

Rather than "massive contracts for 300 or 400 million dollars and more, that take years and years to do," Mische predicts that there will be much more emphasis on outcomes.

The government's attitude will be, "Show me what you did and show me what I got," he said, adding that fee-for-performance arrangements and measurable metrics for consulting services will likely be introduced.

"What I think we're going to see under this administration is a much greater emphasis on design for business outcomes. Not automate the toll path that you're on, but create a new freeway," he said.

The five consultancies did not respond to BI's requests for comment.

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• The Trump administration is slashing federal spending on consultants.
• Business Insider pored over the DOGE receipts to calculate how many contracts had been cut.
• Deloitte has had at least 127 contracts cut or modified — about twice as many as No. 2 on the list.

Ten major firms are under the spotlight as the Trump administration continues its consulting crackdown — but one is taking the most heat.

At least 127 of Deloitte's government contracts have been cut or modified since January, about double the total for the second-hardest-hit consultancy on the Trump administration's list, a Business Insider analysis of data on the White House DOGE office's website found.

The Big Four firm is one of the federal government's 10 highest-paid consultancies, which have come under scrutiny amid the White House's push to cut waste and improve efficiency. The list includes Accenture, Booz Allen Hamilton, IBM, and General Dynamics.

DOGE estimates the Deloitte cuts will save taxpayers about $371.8 million.

This includes $51.4 million in savings from a contract providing IT services to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and $1.1 million in savings from a contract for training on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility that has been running since 2020.

Deloitte US contracts with federal agencies were worth $3.3 billion a year, or almost 10% of its most recent annual revenues, the firm said in a recent earnings report.

Booz Allen Hamilton, which generates almost all of its $11 billion in annual revenue from the public sector, is the second most affected firm on the list, with 61 contracts cut, BI's analysis found.

At least 30 Accenture contracts have been cut, saving $240.2 million, per DOGE's data.

In an annual earnings call last month, Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said that DOGE's cost-cutting efforts had already hit the firm's revenues, and staffers have told BI they're worried about layoffs.

The companies did not respond to requests for comment about their government contracts.

The General Services Administration, the government's largest procurement arm, is leading the effort to reevaluate federal consulting spend.

The agency, which operates separately from DOGE, said that consulting contracts with the 10 firms were set to generate more than $65 billion in fees in 2025 and beyond.

In March, the GSA asked the consultancies to submit a scorecard containing a detailed breakdown of their pricing and suggestions for where they could reduce costs.

It told the firms to identify which contracts were "mission critical" and to use simple terms to do it: "A 15-year-old should be able to understand what service you provide and why it is important."

Responses were due by Monday.

A person at the agency told BI that the GSA and federal bodies were now reviewing the scorecards and would decide on further cuts. The goal was to cut waste and move toward a more outcome-based approach instead of open-ended contracts, they said.

CEOs and senior executives at the consultancies appeared aligned with the administration's priorities, the person added.

Here's the list of contracts cut and savings made, according to the DOGE website:

• Deloitte: 127 contracts, $371.8 million.
• Booz Allen Hamilton: 61 contracts, $207.1 million.
• Guidehouse: 49 contracts, $128.7 million.
• Accenture: 30 contracts, $240.2 million.
• General Dynamics: 16 contracts, $202.7 million.
• IBM: 10 contracts, $34.3 million.
• Leidos: seven contracts, $78.5 million.
• CGI Federal: seven contracts, $465,000.

Science Applications International Corp.: five contracts, $7.5 million.

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• The Big Four have been expanding into legal services for roughly fifteen years with varying success.
• KPMG's legal head told BI there's still room for growth but that it has no plans to take on Big Law.
• Stuart Bedford explained why there are some services the Big Four can do better than Big Law.

The Big Four only have a tiny fraction of the legal market — but there's an area they might have an edge.

Stuart Bedford, KPMG's head of legal services, told Business Insider that Big Four firms like his could handle the "enormous scale" integration needed once a merger deal is past the initial finishing line.

"You need that institutional scale to be able to really translate the legal advisory into the world of large global clients seeking to solve problems which cut across many areas of their business and many jurisdictions."

Bedford, who is himself a Big Law veteran, having worked at the Magic Circle firm Linklaters for 20 years, said that Big Law firms are "absolute machines" at mergers and acquisitions and merger control filings because "they are designed and set up for that."

He added he could not think of anyone "outside the Big Four" that can offer "the right amount of investment in the technology, in the global infrastructure, plus the law to be able to really put it all together."

Traditionally consulting and accountancy firms, the Big Four first started pushing into the legal sector in 2010 to operate as "Alternative Legal Services Providers."

While they operate in key markets like the UK, Germany, and Canada, their legal divisions remain smaller by head count and revenue than other business lines. The Big Four represented just 5.6% of the ALSP market in 2023.

But KPMG wants in on this growing market. In North America, the UK, Europe, and Australia, the ALSP market has risen from less than $1 billion in 2015 to an estimated $28.5 billion in 2023, according to a January report by the Thomson Reuters Institute, the Center on Ethics and the Legal Profession at Georgetown Law, and Oxford University's Saïd Business School.

In February, KPMG became the first of the Big Four to break into the US market by obtaining a unique license to practice law in Arizona. This circumvented a rule set by the American Bar Association that allows only licensed lawyers to own or invest in law firms.

Bedford said KPMG is targeting the managed services that follow a $10 million plus global acquisition deal, like changing documentation to fit with new policies or working out what to do with 500 newly redundant subsidiaries.

Bedford said this area "doesn't have dominant players," adding, "There is still a huge amount for us to play for."

He said that the firm's global operating model, unified technology platform, and multi-disciplinary operations make it uniquely placed to support large clients.

"We are just so much more global than even the most global law firm," Bedford told BI.

A 'global law firm'

Of KPMG's three divisions — audit, advisory, and tax & legal services — the latter was the fastest growing last year, up 9.5%. Business from its audit and advisory lines slowed to grow by 6% and 2%, respectively.

Bedford said KPMG Law was still at an early stage in its combined go-to-market strategy, adding that it was working across 80 jurisdictions to forge ties with KPMG's consulting, tax, and cyber teams.

"Servicing large clients at scale globally through the multi-disciplinary approach. That is core to our strategy," he said.

Bedford said the firm, which is the smallest of the Big Four by employee numbers and revenue, "needed the US" market to expand its contract-managed services business.

"It's the most sophisticated and most advanced," Bedford said. "There is just a huge amount of opportunity to shoot for."

Legal experts previously told BI that the Big Four firm's entry into the US market will drive up competition for talent and business but is unlikely to cause disruption in the short term.

"Legal services are hired based on long-term proven track record. Any new entry into the market is going to have to overcome that competitive energy," said Kirsten Keegan Vasquez, vice president of the legal recruiter Major, Lindsey & Africa.

Legal services is also not a story of uninterrupted growth for the Big Four. This March, EY confirmed to Business Insider that it was restructuring its UK Law business and laying off workers in the division.

In Australia, KPMG disbanded its in-house legal division in July 2024.

EY's Australia boss told staff it was planning to reduce its legal operations in the country in February, the Australian Financial Review reported in February 2025. PwC's legal business has also shrunk in Australia, AFR added.

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• EY is shaking things up under new CEO Janet Truncale, merging global regions and business areas.
• The shake-up follows the failure of "Project Everest," an attempt to split its audit and consulting wings.
• The Big Four firm is also trying to recover from a substantial slowdown in its annual growth.

EY's head, Janet Truncale, took over as CEO and global chair last July, promising to foster greater collaboration across the Big Four firm's international network.

Nine months into the role, EY is starting to see some big changes to its business lines and global structure.

An EY spokesperson confirmed to BI that the firm plans to merge its 18 existing geographical regions into 10 superregions.

Financial News first reported the plans.

In another change, EY announced in a press release this week that it is expanding its EY-Parthenon brand to represent the entire EY strategy and transactions service line.

EY-Parthenon, the firm's strategy consulting division, was previously part of the S&T service line and had around 9,000 workers at the start of this year. The newly expanded division now comprises 25,000 employees across 150 countries.

The move is designed to strengthen the full consulting transformation capabilities of the organization, EY said.

Andrea Guerzoni, EY-Parthenon's Global Vice Chair, added that client demand for strategic consulting had evolved amid geopolitical uncertainty and tech-driven transformational change. The expansion would help meet that changing demand, he said.

Last year, the firm's sector strategy also received a shake-up when EY streamlined its core industries from eight to six.

EY's key sectors are now:

• Financial services
• Private Equity
• Government
• Technology, media, and telecommunications
• Energy and industrials
• Consumer and health

During the process, health, science, and wellness were merged with the consumer industry, as were energy and resources, advanced manufacturing, and mobility.

The Big Four firm has laid off some workers as it implements the changes.

Last week, EY confirmed to Business Insider that it was restructuring its UK Law business by "focussing on strategic areas with greater alignment to the broader EY business." The firm said it would continue to strengthen capabilities in corporate law, company secretarial, tax litigation, and immigration but would be laying off workers across other areas of its UK Law division.

Partner numbers in the UK, where the global consulting and accountancy firm is headquartered, declined by 43 in 2024, according to publicly available data reviewed by BI.

The previous year, the firm had added 27 partners to its ranks.

The waves of change at EY come in the wake of the firm's failed bid to split its consulting and audit lines under the previous CEO, Carmine Di Sibio. Codenamed "Project Everest," the bid collapsed in April 2023 amid infighting and opposition from senior US partners.

Truncale took over as EY's global chair and CEO in July 2024.

In her first public statement as global CEO, she launched a new strategy called "All in," which emphasized collaboration and EY's unity as a single global operation — a clear break from the "Project Everest" mission.

"The All in strategy is about shaping EY's next $50b through purposeful growth," Truncale said. The goal was to "build an even stronger organization by creating new ways to collaborate across EY's vast geographical footprint."

Truncale is also tasked with helping EY recover from a dramatic slowdown in growth last year, a trend that also hit PwC and Deloitte amid an industry-wide drop in demand.

In the 2024 financial year, EY's annual revenue growth fell to 3% from 16% the previous year, its poorest performance since 2010. Partner payouts in the UK were down by 5% last year.

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