The End of the IT Services Company Model Based Solely on Daily Rates
For more than thirty years, the economic model of IT services companies (ESNs in France) has relied on a simple equation: selling human time. The arrival of AI profoundly changes this equation. When an engineer can produce in a few hours what previously required several days, a question becomes inevitable: Should the client continue to buy time or start buying results?
The paradox is striking: The more productive an IT services company becomes thanks to AI, the fewer days it theoretically needs to sell. For the first time in the history of digital services, the production of part of the technical work is no longer exclusively linked to the time spent by an engineer.
AI is capable of producing code, generating tests, writing documentation, creating configurations, performing data analysis, or even automating tasks previously performed manually. In this new context, the end client is no longer interested in the number of days consumed. They are interested in the result obtained.
The question is no longer:
➡️ "How many consultants are you going to mobilize?"
but:
➡️ "How much time are you going to save me?"
and above all:
➡️ "How much savings are you going to allow me to achieve?"
This evolution directly challenges the historic Daily Rate (TJM) model. Indeed, when a task previously performed in twenty days can be executed in two days thanks to AI, the client no longer understands why they should continue to pay for twenty days of service. The billing logic based exclusively on time then progressively becomes incompatible with the productivity gains brought by artificial intelligence.
IT services companies that continue to sell only time risk finding themselves in a paradoxical situation: the more productive their teams become thanks to AI, the more they mechanically reduce their volume of billable days. Conversely, companies that know how to sell value rather than time will have a considerable advantage.
Tomorrow, the most successful economic models will probably be hybrid, with a portion linked to:
✅ Human expertise;
✅ The use of AI platforms;
✅ The results obtained;
✅ The actual uses of the technology.
The IT services company will no longer be just a supplier of consultants. It will become a productivity operator. Its mission will no longer consist of selling man-days, but of delivering a business result faster, at a lower cost, and with a higher level of quality.