Korn Ferry Consulting Rates Hit Record

Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY) reported results on September 9, 2025, highlighting strong multi-year consulting engagement growth, record average bill rates of $470 per hour, up 50% from $300 per hour a few years ago, and strategic expansion in interim workforce solutions. Management detailed large, integrated contract wins, increased AI adoption firmwide, and a cautious economic outlook for the Americas versus sustained momentum in Europe and Asia.

Consulting backlog and average bill rates surge at Korn Ferry

The consulting segment’s backlog increased. 42% of the consulting backlog is made up of engagements over $1 million, and clients are shifting toward longer, more comprehensive contracts. Average consulting bill rates now stand at $470 per hour, compared to $300 per hour just a few years ago, reflecting Korn Ferry’s move upmarket and the growing scope of strategic projects.

"When you look at the average look at rate per hour, as an example, you know, that has gone from it's gone up 50% from $300 an hour just a few years ago to now almost $500 an hour, $470 an hour. When you look at the backlog, the backlog is actually increasing in consulting. 42% of that backlog is engagements over a million dollars, and when you look at the new wins, those are also, you know, a good part of them, not the majority, but a good part are over a million dollars."
-- Gary Burnison, CEO

Sustained growth in high-value consulting engagement size and rates demonstrates Korn Ferry’s ability to win large, multi-year enterprise mandates.

Korn Ferry leverages interim and pro search to capture megatrends

Roughly 70% of Korn Ferry's professional search and interim solutions are based in the United States, and Korn Ferry’s acquisition strategy is focused more on international interim opportunities, avoiding lower-margin contingent recruitment. Interim placements align with a growing global trend toward flexible, project-based labor, and Korn Ferry has identified over 1,200 incremental cross-sell client opportunities since integrating its acquired interim businesses.

"On the interim side, what we've learned is that it is number one, why did we gain into it? We got into it because we see a megatrend that's playing out that we continue to think gonna play out even with AI with fractional workers. And so we think that megatrend is something that we should invest into. What we've learned there is that it is very synergistic with our brand. And similar to ProSearch, the opportunity is quite significant outside of The United States. And in fact, when you look at both ProSearch and interim, you would find that, you know, 70% or so of our solution today is in The United States. And there's an enormous market opportunity. I think you would see us on the acquisition side more oriented towards interim than pro search."
-- Gary Burnison, CEO

This strategy positions Korn Ferry to benefit from global workforce changes while defending pricing and brand positioning, thereby diversifying revenue and enhancing cross-segment client penetration.

AI adoption drives efficiency and client offerings at Korn Ferry

Management consolidated approximately 40 AI-focused staff under centralized leadership and is deploying AI tools both internally for process efficiency and externally for client assessment and coaching on AI readiness. The company is investing meaningfully in generative AI (GenAI) but Korn Ferry is focused on driving both efficiency gains and headcount reductions, with the objective to improve backlog delivery rates and unlock capacity.

"we've taken approximately 40 individuals who had been within each of our solution areas working on various aspects of AI, GenAI. We've organized them under a central leader named Brian Ackerman. And Brian is driving the AI, Gen AI usage in the firm. We've taken those roughly 40 people, centralized them. We now have rolled out licenses depending on, you know, your skill level or what your job role is and so on. The licenses may have, some might be more, have more efficacy than others. And we're going through right now and figuring out the impact that the AI Gen AI is gonna have on our work. I guess, where we are today, if you think about AI and Gen AI, it's to me it's our, you know, mantra is human plus AI. So it's really looking at those as efficiency tools. Think where it potentially gets more interesting is with the use of agents ultimately as they will be integrated into workflows, work process. And so the impact of that is obviously something that we're gonna we'll figure out that down the road. I would say that as I look at our workforce scale, Gary mentioned a couple of times on the call, our backlog. Right? So to me, it's not just about how do I look at AI and Gen AI as a way to get our headcount down. But it's also a way is how do I take out some of the menial tasks that folks are doing today and I could take that freed up capacity and use that to deliver the backlog that we have."
-- Bob Rozek, CFO

The deliberate and centralized AI investment enhances Korn Ferry’s ability to scale client solutions and internal operations.

Looking Ahead

Management signaled continued strength for consulting in Europe and Asia, but sustained headwinds in the Americas without major U.S. rate cuts. Korn Ferry expects its pipeline to be increasingly weighted toward larger, integrated, and multi-year mandates. The company did not disclose concrete revenue or earnings guidance for fiscal 2026 or specific AI-related financial targets in the transcript.

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