COGNITIVE SERVICES
Cognitive services markets
9 markets · knowledge work constrained by labor · fragmented
AVG S1
9.0%
leader share
AVG CR3
19.7%
weighted 15.4%
AVG HHI
204
Unconcentrated
AVG REV/EMP
$443K
leader avg
AVG SG&A %
23%
of revenue (leader avg)
MARKETS
9
in category
Cognitive services are the clearest test of the AI concentration thesis. Most markets have S1 under 10% and hundreds of thousands of firms competing. Accounting consolidated from Big 8 → Big 4 (1989 → 2002) but has been stuck there since. Legal services, engineering, staffing, and IT services all remain deeply fragmented. AI compresses the codifiable routine work that drives their SG&A — see the Labor & AI view for the compressibility ranking.
Markets ranked by S1 (click bar for calculation breakdown)
S1 vs CR3 structure map
Bottom-left = fragmented. Top-right = concentrated. Click dot for calculation →
Historical trends — key markets in Cognitive Services
5 representative markets. Solid = S1 (leader share), dashed = CR3 (top 3 share).
Metrics:Y-Axis:
Cognitive Services: Concentration Over Time
How concentrated is the average cognitive services market? Solid = CR3 (top 3 share), dotted = S1 (leader share).
Metrics:Y-Axis:
What this shows: The solid line is CR3 — the average combined market share of the top 3 companies across 9 cognitive services markets. The dotted line is S1 — the average share of the #1 company alone. Data spans 1960–2025. Markets included: Legal Services, Accounting / Audit, Management Consulting, Insurance Brokerage, Architecture & Engineering, Staffing / Recruiting, Financial Advisory / Wealth, IT Services / Outsourcing, Marketing / Ad Agencies.
All markets (9) — click any row for detail
MARKETLEADERS1CR3REV/EMPSG&ASIZE
Insurance Brokerage
35,000+ firms
Marsh McLennan
22.0%
48.0%
$330K
19%
$95B
Marketing / Ad Agencies
20,000+ firms
Omnicom (incl. IPG)
16.0%
34.0%
$230K
10%
$60B
Financial Advisory / Wealth
15,000+ firms
Morgan Stanley
9.5%
22.5%
$820K
15%
$300B
IT Services / Outsourcing
Thousands globally (boutique + offshore + Big 4 advisory) firms
Accenture
8.0%
17.7%
$170K
16%
$450B
Accounting / Audit
50,000+ firms
Deloitte
7.9%
18.7%
$360K
40%
$420B
Management Consulting
30,000+ firms
McKinsey
7.5%
13.9%
$500K
45%
$125B
Staffing / Recruiting
25,000+ firms
Allegis Group
5.0%
10.9%
$180K
17%
$220B
Architecture & Engineering
100,000+ firms
Jacobs
2.5%
6.6%
$200K
1%
$400B
Legal Services
50,000+ firms
Kirkland & Ellis
2.2%
5.1%
$1.2M
45%
$400B
Data vintage: FY 2024 / FY 2025 · Next refresh: Q3 2026 (mid-FY26 10-Ks)
Source Quality Hierarchy
Every market has a primary source plus 1–3 validation sources. Revenue numerators come from SEC 10-K filings; denominators validated against the Economic Census where available.
TIER 1Authoritative anchorsGovernment data + SEC filings
US Economic Census (data.census.gov) · SEC EDGAR / Company 10-Ks · BEA Industry Value-Added (FRED) · BLS QCEW · USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries · EIA Refinery Capacity Report · FDA device listings
TIER 2Leading commercial trackersIndustry-standard paid trackers
IDC Semiannual Software Tracker · Gartner Market Share & Magic Quadrant · IBISWorld NAICS reports · StatCounter Global Stats · eMarketer / Insider Intelligence · Synergy Research Group
TIER 3Category specialistsBest-in-class niche authorities
SIPRI (aerospace & defense) · IQVIA (pharma) · TrendForce (semiconductors) · CIMdata (CAD/PLM) · Nilson Report (payments) · Am Law 100 (legal) · ENR Top 500 (A&E) · AM Best (insurance) · SIA (staffing) · Ad Age (agencies) · Barron's / Cerulli (wealth) · Evaluate MedTech · Nielsen Gauge (streaming) · Gridwise (ride-hail) · Bloomberg Second Measure (delivery) · RC Top 100 (roofing) · SDM Top 100 (fire/safety) · Big 4 annual reports · ALM Intelligence (consulting)
Data vintage: Q2 2025 research compilation. Labels updated 2026-Q2. Tier 1 sources refreshed from FY2025 SEC filings where available. For full methodology see the Methodology page.