Five Research-backed Lessons for Professional Services CXOs to Lead in the New Services Economy

This article is being published in conjunction with International Services Week (September 8-12, 2025), a global, industry-wide initiative led by Certinia to celebrate and advance the services community. Learn more and get involved at www.ServicesWeek.com.

What if the core strategies that drove your firm's growth for the last decade are now its biggest liability?

A perfect storm is brewing in the services economy, in which shifting customer demands, volatile market pressures, and the sudden hyper-evolution of AI are forcing a painful but necessary reevaluation of how services firms operate.

What separates the firms navigating this storm from those at risk of being swept away? To find the answer, we surveyed over 1,000 services leaders worldwide for our 2025 Global Service Dynamics Report.

The report’s findings pinpoint five key strategic moves that leaders are making to win in this new climate.

1. Your Platform is Your Foundation for Growth

A significant number of services firms are still running on a patchwork of disconnected systems, and it's holding them back. Our research shows a direct link between a unified technology platform and improved business outcomes. For example, firms using a single platform for PSA and CRM were 20% more likely to see improved revenue and margins. A unified platform eliminates the friction caused by siloed data, enabling better decision-making and faster execution.

2. AI is an Opportunity to Double Down on Talent

AI is no longer an abstract idealistic future state. Over 80% of organisations are already using or plan to deploy agentic AI this year, with a strong focus on improving internal efficiency and service delivery. Instead of replacing people, the strategic focus is on augmenting them. The rise of AI makes your team’s strategic skills more valuable, not less. The most forward-thinking leaders are investing in upskilling their teams to work alongside AI, freeing them from repetitive tasks to focus on high-value, client-facing work.

3. Talent Strategy is Now a C-Suite Imperative

The search for skilled talent is one of the biggest challenges facing the services industry. Leaders are concerned about finding qualified candidates and retaining the talent they already have. In fact, 40% of organisations see the talent shortage as a primary barrier to growth. This has evolved from an HR issue into a strategic business problem. The best leaders are personally championing initiatives to build a more resilient workforce, focusing on flexible work models and creating clear paths for career advancement to become a destination for top talent.

4. Proactive Customer Success is the New Standard

The old model of reactive, ticket-based customer support is obsolete. The market has shifted toward proactive, value-oriented customer success. Our report shows that high-performing organisations are 50% more likely to have a dedicated customer success platform to help them anticipate customer needs and manage the entire lifecycle. This approach is critical for improving retention and identifying opportunities for expansion.

5. Delivering Customer Value is a Team Sport

The most successful services organisations operate with a shared sense of accountability for the customer’s success. While most leaders agree that collaboration is important, there is a significant execution gap. Our research found that only 36% of professional services teams proactively collaborate with sales and customer success. Closing this "say-do" gap by aligning teams around the customer journey is essential for delivering the kind of value that earns long-term loyalty.

The firms that will own the next decade are the ones that successfully navigate the perfect storm by moving from fragmented tech to a unified data core, from viewing AI as a threat to wielding it as a force multiplier, and from tolerating silos to demanding shared accountability for every client outcome.

Embracing these principles amounts to a fundamental decision about how you intend to lead through this new era. The only question left is: are you charting a course for the future, or just bracing for impact?

To continue this conversation and gain more insights on navigating these changes, explore the events and thought leadership from International Services Week, a global initiative dedicated to advancing the services community. Find out more at ServicesWeek.com.