Potential Impacts of U.S. Tariffs on Global Consulting Services in 2025

By Ramone Param, Global Lead - Consulting Industry Intelligence, Strategy, and M&A

Advisory at Kennedy

We continue our roadshow presenting to global consulting leadership teams and discussing key findings of Kennedy Intelligence 2025 Consulting Industry Navigator Report, which will be published this quarter to provide one of the most comprehensive reviews of the global professional services market. A topic that our lead analysts are being asked to speak to is regarding the specific impact to consulting services from the recently proposed tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China, and its broader implications to global trade policies in 2025.

The proposed tariffs target specific industries and verticals, which will therefore have different impacts on professional services depending on the specific consulting industry subsegment. Without commenting on the overall macro impact from proposed tariffs, Kennedy considers broader possible impacts to consulting offerings and delivery models, and how the industry may react. This is against the backdrop of an already unprecedented change that we’re tracking to the industry, estimating 2024 consulting market growth of just below 3%, about half the rate of nominal GDP growth.

We consider five specific impacts to consulting services that our analysts have recently discussed with industry leaders:

1. International Trade Compliance: Whilst trade policies are set to change and companies’ international strategies evolve, businesses will need regulatory advice to ensure that they are complying with relevant international trade laws and compliance, whilst strategically monitoring respective risks. This will put a premium on legal and regulatory expertise that are not the traditional strong suits of management consultancies, continuing a trend we've been observing since the resurgence of industrial policy during the COVID years.

   
   

2. Reconfigurations of Regional Offerings: Global consulting firms and their clients may look to diversify or reconfigure their regional focus from markets anticipated to be most impacted by specific tariff policies. Strategy firms continue to play a critical role in identifying the right markets and respective economic/political risks to formulate the appropriate balanced regional strategy.

   
   

3. Offshoring Delivery Models: Those consultancies that still rely on nearshoring or offshoring models to serve U.S. clients may experience new impediments to this strategy from both tariff and stricter immigration policies. Consultants will be directly impacted from pressure to review their own delivery model, whilst also advising clients on how best to configure their global staffing model appropriately.

   
   

4. M&A, Alliances & Investments: Whilst consultancies and their clients reconfigure their offerings and delivery models to a new macro environment - acquisitions, strategic alliances and investments will continue to be used as tools to fast track this. We observed some bounce back in consulting M&A activity in 2024, with deal count estimated to have grown by 7% over the year and positive sentiment anticipated in 2025. In protectionist times, we observe elevated demand for acquisition targets, investments and alliance partners with strong on-shore capabilities to serve domestic clients. We review specific investment and alliances strategies amongst global consulting firms in Kennedy’s 2025 Navigator Report, which are set to evolve further this year and themselves will require advisory services to implement appropriately.

   
   

5. Supply Chain Transformation: Since the start of the pandemic, we observed significant client demand for supply chain transformation advisory capabilities, particularly those with advanced digital and analytics capabilities. These demands will evolve further as global clients with complex supply chain needs require specialized consultancies to redesign their global supply chains to navigate a new and potentially more complex trade environment.

Kennedy’s lead analysts have tracked the industry for over 30 years. As we have seen during past periods of substantial economic and political change, those agile consultancies with a culture of consistent innovation will benefit from swiftly positioning themselves at the forefront of this latest disruption zone.

Reach out if you would like discuss:

• Latest industry developments like these in the context of your consulting firm’s strategy.

  
  

• Purchasing a copy of the 2025 Global Consulting Industry Navigator report.

  
  

• Strategic and operational performance reviews of your consulting firm considering our last industry benchmarks.

  
  

• Custom intelligence into specific professional services markets.

  
  

• Kennedy M&A deal advisory services, including an indicative valuation analysis of your professional services business.

  
  

Please note: This article is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice. The intelligence has been gathered from a variety of public and non-publicly available sources, which have not all been verified, reviewed or approved. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not represent the views of any affiliate organization. Any opinions or views expressed are as of the date written and are subject to change without notice, and may be updated or modified at any time.

Some of the statements may contain or be based on forward looking statements, forecasts, estimates, projections, targets, or prognoses (“forward looking statements”), which reflect the current view of the author of future events, economic developments and financial performance. These forward looking statements contain no representation or warranty of whatever kind that such future event will occur or that they will occur as described therein, or that such results will be achieved, as the occurrence of these events are subject to various risks and uncertainties.