Digital transformation and AI capabilities
The claim regarding 2.5x higher revenue growth is frequently cited in professional services reporting, but its exact tracking reveals a mix-up of data attribution. McKinsey has published extensive work on digital transformation and AI capabilities, but the exact "2.5x higher revenue growth than peers" metric originates from an Accenture research study, which was later highlighted by Info-Tech Research Group in their industry analysis, The Evolution of Professional Services. [1, 2, 3]
Correct citation details
The original study
The metric comes from Accenture’s global study, Reinventing Enterprise Operations with Gen AI. [4]The core finding
Organizations that fully modernize their operations — integrating advanced digital marketing, automated demand generation, and AI-led processes — achieve 2.5x higher revenue growth and 2.4x greater productivity compared to their slower-moving peers. [4]The professional services link
In Info-Tech's industry brief, this data point is specifically applied to the professional services sector (accounting, consulting, and law firms) to demonstrate the direct financial dividend of shifting away from legacy, manual business development toward digital automation. [2, 5]
What McKinsey actually reports
Here is the McKinsey & Company citation regarding digital leaders outperforming their peers, from their benchmark report, Rewired and Running Ahead: Digital and AI Leaders Are Leaving the Rest Behind. [6, 7, 8]
In this multi-year study, McKinsey notes that top-tier digital leaders — specifically those who integrate data metrics across digital marketing, revenue management, and AI — perform 2.0 to 2.5 times better than their industry peers across all primary operational capability categories, driving significantly higher total returns. [6]
[1] https://www.prnewswire.com
[3] https://www.researchandmetric.com