8 insights from the ‘Certinia at Dreamforce’ event: AI resets the economics of professional services

AI is rewriting the economics of professional services. Firms that once billed by the hour are quoting fixed bids, compressing delivery timelines and absorbing risk they would previously have pushed onto the client. The labor a single project consumes is falling, and the price with it. The argument has moved past whether the technology works to whether its output can be trusted. The next phase is defined by determinism — context captured across the full services lifecycle, knowledge that compounds from one engagement to the next, and agents whose actions carry financial and regulatory consequences. Business models are shifting in step, away from billable…