AI is now part of everyday delivery work in professional services. SPI Research’s 2026 study reports that 43.6% of projects use AI, up from 23.1% in 2025. On September 30, Scoro let its AI assistant act on behalf of chosen users in automation rules and released a free time-tracking app. The open question for agencies and software teams is whether the hours AI saves turn into margin.

What SPI Research found

SPI Research published The 2026 Impact of AI on Professional Services in October 2026. It is the fourth annual edition of the study. The report page says 245 independent professional services organizations (PSOs) and embedded service organizations (ESOs) took part between July and September 2026, up from 146 in 2025.

The headline figure: 43.6% of projects now use AI, up from 23.1% in 2025. That is close to twice the 2025 share. The page also reports that 84.8% of respondents say AI saves them time.

SPI sums up the third part of the report in one line: “AI saves time, but few firms turn those hours into revenue.” The public page does not show what share of firms say AI generates revenue. That figure is in the full report, which SPI sells for $1,495. We read only the public report page, so this article does not quote the paid findings.

What Scoro shipped on September 30

Scoro’s September 2026 product update, published on September 30, 2026, includes three changes that matter for this topic:

  • ELI smart filters. A user describes a list or report in plain language, and ELI, Scoro’s AI assistant, opens the matching filtered view. Each request uses 3 to 5 ELI credits.
  • ELI in triggers and actions rules. Scoro added ELI actions to these automation rules in August. The September update lets site administrators create rules in which ELI acts on behalf of a chosen user, or of the person who started the trigger event. One example in the update: when a quote reaches a set status, ELI creates the project, links it to the quote, adds the quote’s providers as project members and sets up tentative bookings.
  • Scoro Time mobile app. A time-tracking app for iOS and Android. Scoro says it is free for anyone with an active Scoro account. It works offline and can take over a timer that is already running in the desktop app.

Scoro states that ELI acts only within the permissions of the user it acts for. Every request, in chat or through an automation, uses ELI credits from the site’s monthly pool.

Our earlier news article covered Scoro’s July update and Teamwork’s move to usage-based AI credits. It includes a checklist for giving an AI assistant write access to PSA data.

What it means for agencies and software teams

Saved hours are not saved margin

If AI cuts the hours on a deliverable and you bill by the hour, the invoice gets smaller. Your labor cost falls too, but your profit in dollars falls with the revenue. Margin grows only when the price holds while the hours drop: a fixed fee, a retainer or a value-based price.

Measure hours per deliverable, not hours in total

Total hours say little when the work mix changes from month to month. Track hours per repeatable deliverable, such as a landing page, a code review or a QA cycle, before and after AI enters the workflow. That baseline is the only way to prove the time saving on your own projects.

AI usage is a cost line

Credit-based AI turns part of your software bill into a variable cost. An automation rule that runs on every quote or every task uses credits in proportion to volume. Record that cost against the projects that use it. If you leave it out, the project P&L overstates margin.

Every automation rule needs an owner

A rule that acts on behalf of a user still creates projects and changes bookings. Name an owner for each rule. Review what the rule changed during its first weeks, before you add the next one.

Time capture still drives every number

AI estimates and margin reports depend on the time data underneath them. A free mobile timer, like the one Scoro released, is a reminder that vendors still compete on the basic job of getting hours logged on time.

See what saved hours do to your margin

Start free with up to 5 users — no feature limits. Log one project’s hours in BeOnBoard and see how the margin moves when the hours drop. Prefer a walkthrough first? Request a demo and we will show you the P&L view on your kind of project.

Try BoB free Request a demo

Hourly vs. fixed fee: where the saved hours go

The example below is illustrative, not taken from either source. It uses one deliverable, a $150 hourly billing rate and a $60 hourly labor cost. AI cuts the work from 100 hours to 70 hours. The figures leave out the cost of the AI tool itself.

ScenarioHoursRevenueLabor costMarginMargin %
Before AI, billed hourly100$15,000$6,000$9,00060%
With AI, billed hourly70$10,500$4,200$6,30060%
With AI, fixed fee70$15,000$4,200$10,80072%

Hourly billing keeps the margin at 60%, but the firm earns $2,700 less on the same deliverable. The fixed fee keeps the revenue at $15,000 and lifts the margin to 72%. AI credits, review time and rework reduce that gain, so record them as well.

Stacked bars for one illustrative deliverable: hourly billing earns $9,000 margin before AI and $6,300 with AI, while a fixed fee with AI earns $10,800.
Illustrative example: $150/h billing rate, $60/h labor cost, AI cuts 100 hours to 70. Excludes AI tool cost.

Where BoB fits

BoB, the product from Byoxon, does not appear in either news item. This article does not claim that BoB has AI features. Its role here is measurement: it shows what a change in hours does to revenue and margin.

The Byoxon homepage lists billing rates per project, flexible billing per hour, per month or as a fixed bid, and real-time profit and loss per project, employee, client and category. It also lists project budgets with expense tracking, custom time categories and a monthly P&L projection. The project cost management page describes the cost side in more detail.

Together, these let you run the comparison in the table above on your own data. Log hours per project in an employee timesheet, move one project from hourly to a fixed bid, record AI tool costs as expenses, and compare the margin month over month.

Four-step loop to measure AI's effect on margin: baseline hours per deliverable, tag AI-assisted work, log AI costs per project, compare margin per unit.
A four-step, 30-day loop for measuring whether AI improves project margin.

A 30-day plan to measure AI’s effect on margin

  1. Pick two repeatable deliverables. Record their current hours per unit.
  2. Mark the work that uses AI, with a time category or a note on each time entry.
  3. Record every AI cost, including seats, credits and add-ons, against the projects that use it.
  4. After 30 days, compare hours, revenue and margin per unit with the baseline.
  5. If hours fell and revenue fell with them, review the pricing model for that deliverable before you scale AI further.

Keep the scope small. Two deliverables and one month give you a result you can act on, and they keep the extra admin low.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many professional services projects use AI in 2026?

SPI Research’s 2026 study reports that 43.6% of projects use AI, up from 23.1% in 2025. The study covers 245 professional services and embedded service organizations surveyed between July and September 2026.

What did Scoro change on September 30, 2026?

Scoro added ELI smart filters at 3 to 5 credits per request and let administrators set ELI to act on behalf of a chosen user in triggers and actions rules. It also released the Scoro Time mobile app, free for anyone with an active Scoro account.

Does AI increase agency profit?

Not by itself. SPI’s public summary says AI saves time but few firms turn those hours into revenue. Under hourly billing, fewer hours mean a smaller invoice. Margin grows when the price holds while the hours fall.

Does BoB include an AI assistant?

This article makes no claim about BoB AI features. BoB tracks hours, billing rates, expenses and real-time project P&L, so you can measure the effect of AI tools that you use elsewhere. Check byoxon.com for the current feature list.

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