Desk · Field note
Professional services lead on efficiency, trail on citability.
Accounting, legal, and audit firms post the highest revenue-per-employee in the Index — and the lowest citability. Both facts are related.
CD
Reported by Cait Downey · Jun 25, 2026
70
median efficiency, professional services
The professional services cohort is the most operationally efficient we track. It is also the least visible to AI.
The trade-off
Billable-hour firms optimize for delivery, not for publishing. That produces cash — and invisibility.
The leaders
Sterling Audit & Advisory treats its research library as a compounding asset, not a marketing cost.