October 1, 2025
Jim Peko, Grant Thornton Advisors
AI Threatening Professional Services: This CEO Says Not On My Watch, Jim Peko – Grant Thornton CEO
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Most businesses are rapidly deploying AI to be more competitive, but some are struggling to adapt, or worse, think Microsoft Co-Pilot is enough adaptation. Sectors like consulting, accounting, and law firms, are in big trouble and many are facing an Opportunity Crisis. Our next guest is reaching that point in their evolution, but instead of being disrupted, they are choosing to reboot themselves as the disruptors who can create and lead the next generation of business.
Jim Peko is CEO of Grant Thornton, part of Grant Thornton International, an $8 billion group with 76,000 employees in hundreds of offices worldwide. Jim is making no small plans for their reboot; they have brought in a top private equity partner to think bigger and accelerate Jim’s plans. Listen in as we unpack this ambitious reboot and how, through a billion-dollar investment from New Mountain Capital, they plan to supercharge the AI-enabled services sector—and how you can be an AI disruptor.
Carving Your Path As A Disruptor
At the center of Jim’s strategy is a focus on building a multinational, multidisciplinary platform. Jim explains that the current firms under the Grant Thornton network almost work like a franchise model—where one firm doesn’t always know what another is doing. This allowed them to be reactive and provide global services that were available through a partner firm in another country. An example Jim gives us is “If a client went into country A and said, Hey, I want to do an Oracle implementation, if they didn’t have an Oracle business in that country, we couldn’t do that.” Through acquiring a number of these firms under the GT network, they can better meet the challenges of a fast-evolving global marketplace.
Investing In Scale Is Not Enough
Although acquiring firms is rapidly growing Grant Thornton and its capabilities; simply acquiring more firms is not enough to adapt. This is where the other aspect of Jim’s reboot comes in, through investing in the technologies and capabilities that can set the firm apart from its competitors. They are investing $1B in AI and technology platforms, and as Jim notes, that “is going to be about enabling our business to go faster,” which is a must to keep up with the current marketplace. This will allow their talent to focus on high-value work as they allow AI to accomplish the time-consuming tasks—or create new ones.
Confidence In The Future
Jim sees the second half of this decade as a turning point for accounting and consulting, and frankly, any business disrupted by AI. “AI is, in my opinion, here to stay,” Jim says, and continues with “you’re either going to embrace it or you’re going to fall behind.” This has happened over the years; some of you have even seen it with companies like Kodak, Blockbuster, Sears, and Kmart. Jim is working to make sure his company does not go down that path and is listening to the changing client appetites and industry dynamics to make the necessary changes to stay competitive. Although the reboot is an aggressive one, Grant Thornton, as a firm, has been around for 100 years, and that is an accomplishment built on resilience and reboots, and hopefully, this reboot is another success to add to their history book. Keep an eye on this one for valuable leadership lessons.
