M&A keeps consulting busy
- EY expects robust M&A activity ahead, driven in part by AI expansion despite supply shocks. - CFO Dive reported EY's view that AI is fueling dealmaking even amid supply constraints. - Active M&A creates demand for integration, PMO, and value-creation consulting work. (cfodive.com)
EY says U.S. dealmaking is staying strong in 2026, with artificial intelligence pushing companies toward acquisitions even as supply shocks raise costs and uncertainty. (cfodive.com) EY’s March 2026 U.S. M&A report said transactions worth more than $100 million rose 43% year over year in value and 25% in volume. Deals above $5 billion rose 82% in value, with technology, consumer products and retail, power and utilities, and life sciences leading activity. (ey.com) EY-Parthenon said buyers are chasing “AI- and technology- and capability-rich assets” as valuation gaps between buyers and sellers narrow. In EY’s January 2026 CEO Outlook, the firm said companies are using M&A to buy technology, talent and market access faster than they can build it themselves. (ey.com, ey.com) The pressure point is not only getting a deal signed. EY says companies need careful planning and prompt integration as commodity prices, supply-chain stress and tighter financial conditions complicate execution in 2026. (ey.com) That is where consulting work expands. EY markets integration services around standing up an integration management office, identifying synergies, redesigning operating models, managing change and integrating functions after a transaction closes. (ey.com) EY’s broader M&A advisory practice also pitches diligence, valuation, deal execution and post-merger integration, linking each step to “where value can be created.” In a busier market, that means more demand for strategy work before a deal and more execution work after it. (ey.com, ey.com) Other advisers are seeing the same pattern. McKinsey said global M&A value jumped 43% to $4.7 trillion in 2025, with large deals dominating and AI adding to optimism, while private equity still has pressure to put capital to work and deliver exits. (mckinsey.com) The backdrop is still uneven. EY’s chief economist Gregory Daco said the U.S. economy grew 2.1% in 2025, but the firm now expects 1.7% real gross domestic product growth in late 2026 and sees headline personal consumption expenditures inflation at 3.0% year over year in the fourth quarter. (ey.com) So the consulting opportunity is not a simple rebound in deal count. It is a market of fewer, larger, more complicated transactions, where buyers want AI capabilities quickly and need outside help to keep integration from eroding the value they paid for. (cfodive.com, ey.com, ey.com)
