Talk to enough founders of AI professional services firms and one theme surfaces quickly: every deal feels like the first deal. Buying processes are informal, deal dynamics are hard to read, and there is almost no formal framework buyers use when they decide to engage – or walk away.

That kept coming up. So we stopped asking founders what they thought buyers wanted and went to ask the buyers directly.

The result is what we believe is the first independent survey of buyers of AI Enablement services - not AI tools, not agents, but the services built to make those things work inside real organisations. We wanted to understand who's involved in decision making, what triggers the search, what gets a vendor short-listed, and what kills a deal before it closes.

The findings are clarifying. The top reason buyers start looking for AI Enablement services: difficulty translating AI into practical use cases or workflows. Not budget. Not leadership buy-in. The translation gap is where the process begins.

But if you're navigating this market - as a founder selling into it or indeed a buyer trying to purchase with confidence - the full picture is worth reading. The data on what gets vendors short-listed, and what ends deals, is in the report.

We're sharing the full report exclusively with AI Enablement Insider subscribers first. You can access it here.

— Daria