Korim Index · Monthly analysis · Updated
What should Technology buyers pay for in AI: access to a model, or software that completes a valuable task at an acceptable cost and error rate? For October, Korim’s commercial priority is the second. Focus on defined workflows, connections to existing systems and evidence of operating value. The buying decision should turn on what survives everyday use, including human review, rather than what looks impressive in a demonstration.
Top opportunities this month
- Package one consultancy workflow
Target managing partners, operations directors and technology leads at smaller consultancies.
- Standardise portfolio AI operations
Approach private equity operating partners alongside portfolio company technology and finance directors.
- Sell independent acceptance testing
Target enterprise procurement heads, technology directors and operational risk owners with a fixed-scope evaluation before software acceptance or renewal.
Korim's view
Korim’s view is to sell implementation with measurable acceptance criteria, not broad transformation promises. Prioritise consultancy workflow software, portfolio AI management and independent performance testing. Each offers a specific deliverable that buyers can assess before expanding a contract. Judge value after integration, model usage, support and correction costs. Keep reusable software separate from bespoke services in both pricing and delivery: otherwise a product strategy becomes a succession of consulting projects.
What changed this month
Consultancy software has a defined workflow
February research described specialist developers building software for small and medium-sized consultancies to collect client data, analyse it and format reports. That provides a concrete starting point for product design: a bounded sequence rather than an unrestricted assistant. July research also found strong technology partnerships across all 10 AI consulting providers evaluated, spanning models, cloud infrastructure, data, software and security. Partnership breadth alone is therefore a weak basis for differentiation; suppliers should demonstrate how those components support a particular workflow.
Implementation expectations need an operating model
February enterprise research found that two-thirds of enterprises surveyed expected technology service providers to build and operationalise priority agentic AI use cases, while one-third were already scaling agentic deployments. These are general enterprise findings, not banking-specific adoption figures. Separately, a Q4 2025 survey found that 78% of private equity leaders viewed AI as a top investment priority even if a recession occurred in the coming months. Together, these findings support an implementation focus, but the commercial task is to define ownership, support and purchasing responsibility.
Adoption is an inadequate value measure
Early-2025 research across 100 wealth and asset managers found that 95% had scaled generative AI adoption to multiple use cases, but only slightly more than one-quarter of executives reported substantial business impact. This sector-specific evidence provides context for Technology procurement, not a measure of returns across all industries. The useful distinction is between deployment coverage and operating results. Evaluation should measure completed work, correction effort and total delivery cost, rather than simply count users or use cases.
Where the opportunity lies
Package one consultancy workflow
Target managing partners, operations directors and technology leads at smaller consultancies. Sell a paid build around one repeatable client engagement, with expansion tied to agreed acceptance tests. Deliver structured intake, documented analytical rules, report templates, human approval and an exportable record of changes. Agree ownership of methods, client data and reusable code before development. Assess value through turnaround time and review effort against the existing process, while checking whether the software remains reusable across clients.
Standardise portfolio AI operations
Approach private equity operating partners alongside portfolio company technology and finance directors. Offer a scoped implementation in selected companies before proposing a portfolio licence. Deliver an application inventory, vendor and model cost reporting, access controls, incident ownership and comparable workflow measures. Make connections to existing systems and data export part of acceptance. Price initial integration separately from recurring management, and assess whether shared administration reduces duplicated work without forcing unlike businesses into the same process.
Sell independent acceptance testing
Target enterprise procurement heads, technology directors and operational risk owners with a fixed-scope evaluation before software acceptance or renewal. Deliver a representative test set, a baseline comparison, failure analysis, human intervention measures and reproducible results. Keep the assessor separate from implementation incentives. Offer repeat testing after material model or workflow changes, with triggers written into the contract. The buyer should receive a defensible purchase decision, not a generic assurance badge or a promise of compliance.
What could weaken the case
- Investment priorities and enterprise expectations do not establish committed budgets. Require a named purchasing owner and a funded scope before committing delivery capacity.
- Reject expansion where integration, human review and support costs erase measured savings. A successful demonstration is insufficient.
- Consultancy software loses its product economics when each client requires extensive redevelopment; portfolio management loses value when companies cannot share useful controls.
- Testing is only as credible as its task coverage and baseline. Narrow tests cannot establish general safety, regulatory compliance or clinical validity.
What to watch next
- Look for paid consultancy engagements with reusable templates, explicit ownership terms and acceptance criteria tied to completed client work.
- Track portfolio purchases that name both the central sponsor and company-level owners, with shared reporting and support responsibilities.
- Watch for procurement contracts requiring baseline comparisons, reproducible tests and retesting triggers, followed by expansion decisions based on measured results.
Research behind the analysis
Specialist developers are building software for small and medium-sized consultancies that automates consulting tasks including collecting client data, analysing it and formatting reports.
Financial Times ·All 10 AI consulting providers evaluated by Forrester had strong technology partnerships spanning model builders, hyperscalers, data infrastructure suppliers, software companies and security platforms.
Forrester ·BCG found that two-thirds of enterprises surveyed expected technology service providers to build and operationalise priority agentic AI use cases, while one-third were already scaling agentic deployments.
BCG ·KPMG’s Q4 2025 survey found that 78% of private equity leaders viewed AI as a top investment priority even if a recession occurred in the coming months.
KPMG ·EY’s early-2025 research across 100 wealth and asset managers found that 95% had scaled generative AI adoption to multiple use cases, but only slightly more than one-quarter of executives reported substantial business impact.
EY ·In England in 2023, 2024, automated surveillance linking routinely collected laboratory and hospital encounter records matched 71,556 of 73,807 locally identified bacteraemias (97.0%), with centrally generated metadata fields as complete as or more complete than locally reported fields.
UK Health Security Agency ·University Hospitals of Leicester became the first NHS trust to adopt the Federated Data Platform as its core data warehouse, integrating data from multiple systems through an acute Canonical Data Model that Bain says could become the standard for all acute NHS trusts.
Bain & Company ·Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust joined an Alzheimer's prevention trial recruiting 1,600 healthy adults aged 55 to 80 internationally, with researchers using blood tests to identify those most likely to benefit from participation.
BBC News ·