I The signal
Clients have started asking: if AI made the work faster, why is the price the same?
- It is in contract terms. Some companies are hard-coding a 10% “AI efficiency” discount into contracts.AFR, via Revium
- The biggest buyers are renegotiating. Major AWS ProServe customers are seeking “AI-delivered pricing”.Business Insider
- Professionals are doing it to each other. KPMG pressed its own auditor to pass on AI savings. The fee fell 14%.Financial Times
II What’s being overweighted
“Move to outcome-based pricing.”
Underweighted The discount request is triggered by disclosure, not by outcomes. How you describe your use of AI is now pricing language.
III Counterfactuals
If the trajectory holds…
If the tick-box AI discount reaches mid-market terms, then any engagement quoted in days or hours gets reopened at the point of disclosure.
If the Deloitte repayment becomes the case buyers cite, then verification becomes a line item, and a premium.
IV Implications for advisors
- Write your AI answer before the client asks.
- Stop quoting time for work AI has compressed.
- Give the saving back as scope, not as a discount.
- Name your verification step, and price it.
V What we’re watching next
- Whether “AI efficiency” clauses reach mid-market procurement templates.
- The next round of audit fee disclosures: one-off, or pattern?
- Whether a buyer-side survey repeats the 48/52 split on fees. One data point is not a trend.