PEOPLE & CULTURE PULSE · ISSUE 5 · MAY 2026
A monthly benchmark for People & Culture teams: the talking points that matter and how your culture compares, built on Deltabase data covering 5,500+ companies and 11M employee reviews.
Editor's note
This month's theme is AI adoption and skills, and Professional Services is where it is most visible. The Big Four are now advertising more AI roles than audit roles, PwC set out plans to train 30,000 people on AI agents, and the UK labour market softened again. For People teams, the shared thread is simple: skills strategy and career strategy now have to be planned together.
Leroy Hall, Deltabase
The month in three
1. AI roles overtake audit in Big Four job ads
What happened: A Financial Times analysis published on 19 May found that AI roles made up almost 7% of job postings at Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC in English-speaking countries in 2025, more than triple the 2022 share. Audit roles were just under 3% of adverts, and about four-fifths of AI roles required coding skills.
The Deltabase lens: Employees in the sector rate their technology highly: Tech in Workplace scored +44.9% at Accenture and +29.5% at Deloitte in 2025. Career Progression is a different story, falling from −54.8% to −67.6% at Accenture and from −8.4% to −20.2% at Deloitte.
So what: When hiring tilts towards specialist skills, existing staff read it as a signal about their own prospects. Benchmark Career Progression alongside any skills plan.
2. PwC sets out AI training at scale
What happened: In mid-May, PwC announced plans to train 30,000 staff on Anthropic's Claude and build a certification programme, rolling out Claude Code and Claude Cowork for client work. More than 5,000 partners and senior leaders have already attended hands-on sessions, out of a global workforce of 364,000.
The Deltabase lens: PwC's overall Employee NSS improved from −14.5% in 2024 to −11.9% in 2025, the largest gain among nine Professional Services Top 100 firms. Learning & Development is already a sector strength, at +79.0% for Deloitte and +72.3% for Accenture in 2025.
So what: Large training programmes tend to register in Learning & Development sentiment first. The real test is whether they also lift how empowered people feel in their roles.
3. The UK labour market cools further
What happened: ONS figures released in May put unemployment at 5.0% for January to March 2026. Payrolled employees were down 104,000 on the year, vacancies fell 28,000 to 705,000 (the lowest since February to April 2021), and regular pay growth was 3.4%.
The Deltabase lens: A quieter market reduces quit pressure, but sentiment still moves. Accenture's overall score fell 4.9 pts to −7.9% in 2025, even as its Work-Life Balance score improved from −19.1% to −11.3%.
So what: Lower attrition now can mask disengagement that only shows up when hiring recovers. Use the lull to fix what reviews are already telling you.
Stat of the month
6 of 9: Professional Services Top 100 firms whose Employee NSS improved in 2025, lifting the sector median from −8.3% to −7.9%.
| Company | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|
| Boston Consulting Group | +8.9% | +8.1% | −0.8 pts |
| McKinsey & Company | +1.1% | +2.1% | +1.0 pts |
| Accenture | −3.0% | −7.9% | −4.9 pts |
| Deloitte | −9.5% | −8.0% | +1.5 pts |
| PwC | −14.5% | −11.9% | +2.6 pts |
| Sector median (9 firms) | −8.3% | −7.9% | +0.3 pts |
Source: Deltabase Culture data, Employee Net Sentiment Score (−100% to +100%), 2024–2025. Sector median across Accenture, Bain & Company, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, EY, McKinsey & Company, PwC, TCS and Wipro.
Spotlight: Accenture vs Deloitte
Accenture's overall score fell from −3.0% to −7.9% in 2025, while Deloitte's improved from −9.5% to −8.0%, closing most of the gap between them. Accenture leads clearly on Tech in Workplace (+44.9% vs +29.5%) and Work-Life Balance (−11.3% vs −60.9%). Deloitte leads on Learning & Development (+79.0% vs +72.3%) and, by a wide margin, on Career Progression (−20.2% vs −67.6%). Both firms saw Career Progression fall by around 12 to 13 pts in a single year, a signal worth watching as AI reshapes junior work.
For your People team
- Track Career Progression alongside AI-skills hiring; specialist recruitment changes how existing staff see their prospects.
- Measure AI training through Learning & Development and Empowered sentiment, not attendance figures alone.
- Use the softer labour market to address Work-Life Balance and leadership issues before hiring picks up again.
See how your culture compares. Book a 30-minute culture benchmark walkthrough against your peer set. Book a walkthrough →
Sources: The Irish Times / Financial Times (19 May 2026); WinBuzzer (15 May 2026); Stafforce summary of ONS labour market statistics (20 May 2026); Deltabase Culture data.