EY Grew to 415,182 Staff as AI Sales Rose 49%, but Its Americas Workforce Fell 4.9%

EY ended June 2026 with 415,182 people, up from 406,209 a year earlier, a rise of 2.2% in a year when sales from AI services grew by 49%. Headcount in the Americas fell 4.9% to 87,546, while the Global Entities group, which includes EY Global Delivery Services, grew 12.3% to 92,082. For Metaintro readers weighing a Big Four application, the useful detail is in EY's own headcount table, which shows which service lines and areas grew or shrank.

What Did EY Report for Its 2026 Financial Year?

EY's combined global revenues reached US$57b for the fiscal year ending June 2026, an increase of 4.7% in local currency, or about £43bn in sterling. The exact total in its table is US$56,969 million, against US$53,219 million in the prior year. Revenue grew in every service line, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 8.3%.

By service line, EY-Parthenon rose 7.4% in local currency to US$6.8 billion, Tax rose 6.0% to US$13.8 billion, consulting rose 4.4% to US$17.4 billion, and assurance grew 3.0% to US$18.9 billion. EY-Parthenon revenue was flat in the 2025 financial year. A rebound in the deal market and demand for strategy services is also likely to have contributed to the rise, Business Insider reported.

These are also the first full-year results since EY consolidated 18 geographic regions into 10, a simpler structure that would improve collaboration, speed, and client service across its international network, according to EY. The headcount figures reflect personnel as at the end of June of each financial year.

Where Did EY's Headcount Actually Grow?

Consulting headcount reached 131,678, up 6.0% from 124,238, making it the largest service line by people, ahead of assurance at 130,279. A year earlier, the order was reversed, with assurance at 130,898 and consulting at 124,238.

The Global Entities group rose to 92,082 from 81,990, an increase of 12.3%. It was already growing fast the year before, when it went from 74,918 to 81,990, a rise of 9.4%.

Tax headcount rose 3.2% to 77,730, while EMEIA grew 1.5% to 164,762 and Asia-Pacific grew 1.2% to 70,792. EY-Parthenon headcount rose only 1.8% to 25,484, even as its revenue grew 7.4%. Practice support slipped 1.4% to 50,011.

What Is the Global Entities Group, and Where Are Its Jobs?

Global Entities covers global services and functions including the Global Delivery Services (GDS) organization. GDS entities support EY member firms across the world by providing support capabilities to their client-serving account teams as well as internal enablement support services. The group includes EY's offshoring centers.

GDS is a global delivery network of over 74,000 people, an undated figure, and it is part of the wider Global Entities group of 92,082.

The locations matter for applicants. GDS works across 9 locations and 21 cities, and operates in Argentina, Hungary, India, Philippines, Poland, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Spain and the United Kingdom. Its teams sit in GDS Assurance, GDS Consulting, GDS Enablement Services, GDS Strategy and Transactions, and GDS Tax, each with its own job search on the page.

GDS looks for skills that are evergreen, its roles evolve with industry trends, and it works across Finance, Business Development, Technology, Talent, Procurement and Risk Management functions, and works with teams from all EY service lines, geographies and sectors. On pay, it does not publish figures, and says instead that your recruiter can talk to you about the total rewards package available in your country.

From accountants to coders, we offer a wide variety of fulfilling career opportunities that span all business disciplines, according to EY's Global Delivery Services careers page.

What Happened to EY's Americas Workforce?

The Americas ended the year with 87,546 people against 92,030, a fall of 4.9%. The year before, the region had already edged down 0.7% from 92,638.

Americas revenue kept rising, to US$25,936 million, up 4.2% in local currency, after 3.3% growth to US$24,741 million in the prior year. That was still below revenue growth in EMEIA, up 5.1% to US$23,238 million, and Asia-Pacific, up 4.9% to US$7,795 million.

EY gives no reason for the regional drop in its results.

How Much Did AI Drive the Year?

Sales from AI services grew by 49%, as organizations increasingly moved AI projects beyond experimentation toward enterprise-wide transformation. In the 2025 financial year, AI-related revenue grew by 30%, and more than 15,000 EY people worked on AI-led projects for clients in consulting and EY-Parthenon.

By the end of the financial year, 203,000 employees held Microsoft Copilot licences, and that figure has since risen to 381,000. Agentic AI is being introduced into internal workflows and client services, while EY's Responsible AI framework remains the basis for how those tools are bought and deployed. The firm continues to invest in AI-ready data, governance frameworks, and newer fields including physical AI and quantum computing.

In assurance, 130,000 EY professionals are now enabled by AI. EY continued its multiyear transformation of audit services in FY26, including the global rollout of enterprise-scale agentic AI, as part of a multibillion-dollar investment in audit quality, technology and people. A year earlier, EY announced the latest milestone in its US$1b Assurance technology investment, a series of capabilities that bring AI at scale to over 160,000 audit engagements globally, through more than 130,000 EY Assurance professionals.

EY now has 119 active alliance or ecosystem relationships, and Microsoft and EY are investing US$1b in a new initiative that pairs Microsoft Forward Deployed Engineers with EY industry professionals.

In its 2025 financial year, EY was investing more than $US1b to develop AI-first platforms and products each year, including 1,000 AI agents and the deployment of more than 100 internal AI applications. Over the past decade, revenue linked to alliance partners has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 34%. EY's alliances span areas such as physical AI, agentic AI, AI-ready data and enterprise transformation. EY was also named NVIDIA's Global System Integrator Tech Innovation Partner of the Year in the financial year.

Clients are moving from experimenting with AI to redesigning how their businesses operate, Janet Truncale, EY Global Chair and CEO, said, according to the EY results release.

How Do EY's Own Figures Compare With Business Insider's Nearly 10,000?

EY's headcount rose to 415,182 from 406,209 and consulting to 131,678 from 124,238, figures that do not match the nearly 10,000 jobs globally and 9,000 consulting jobs reported by Business Insider.

The Global Entities line of 92,082 against 81,990 lines up with the group that added more than 10,000 staff. Global Entities grew by more than the firm as a whole, while the Americas, assurance and practice support shrank.

AI services sales rose by nearly 50 per cent, and the exact EY figure is 49%.

How Does EY Compare With Its Rivals?

EY's revenue grew 4.7% in local currency. Deloitte's global revenue grew 3.8% to $74.5 billion in results published in September, a slowdown compared to the 4.8% rise the year before. Its tech consulting business was the slowest-growing division, with the technology and transformation arm growing 2.5% compared with 4.7% the previous year. In the UK, PwC's UK revenue grew to £4.365bn, up two per cent on the previous year, and Deloitte UK revenue for the year ended 31 May 2026 rose 2 per cent to £5.81bn.

Shares in Accenture, one of the few publicly listed consulting giants, had fallen 26.7% so far in 2026 when Business Insider reported EY's results, amid investor fears that AI could undermine the traditional consulting model, though Accenture's recent financial results for the year ended August 31st helped lift expectations, and the company said AI-driven reinventions were behind its 5% rise in annual revenue.

Earlier this year, EY also had to withdraw a study on loyalty rewards programmes after a probe found a string of AI hallucinations and fake footnotes, City AM reported.

How Is AI Changing Work at Consulting Firms Like EY?

AI has disrupted professional services, putting pressure on time-based pricing models and creating questions about how junior talent will develop as more work gets automated, Business Insider reported. Leaders at top firms argue the other side, that companies will need consultants to help them implement it and reorganize their workforces rather than being replaced by AI.

Consulting firms are increasingly working on multi-year projects to completely transform a company's operations, and there are also new AI-related business opportunities in auditing, tax advice, and deal valuations, the same report said. Accenture said it added more than 400 clients undertaking their first "advanced AI" work in its latest financial year, and it has made AI skills a requirement for promotion.

In its 2025 financial year, EY rolled out a Career Agility program offering flexibility and career opportunities, and over 4,000 EY people participated in international assignments across 1,200 different home/host city combinations in the past year.

Separately, in the same year EY launched EY Studio+, whose teams comprise 7,000 professionals from 37 specialist companies acquired by EY network members in recent years, along with organically grown EY businesses. Studio+ provides integrated offerings across design, sales, marketing and customer experience.

What Skills Is EY Training Its People For?

EY invested US$448m in training and development, including new learning programs focused on AI and other emerging technologies, leadership and other future-focused skills. Staff completed 5.2 million hours of formal AI-related learning and earned more than 40,000 AI learning accreditations through the EY Badges scheme, with another 104,000 underway. The EY Badges program has offered more than 275 badges designed to develop future-focused skills including leadership, AI, technology and business, and it had awarded more than 693,000 badges to EY professionals since its launch in 2017, as of the 2025 results.

Across all subjects, staff completed 26.6 million hours of formal learning, up from 24.6 million in the previous year. EY also has the fastest-growing AI-skilled population across the combined enterprise customer bases of Coursera and Udemy, by its own account, including in Coursera's benchmark for Intermediate and Advanced AI capabilities. GDS learning programs include EY Badges, the EY Tech MBA, multi-level women leadership programs and GDS bootcamps for new graduates, and GDS runs a career development program called Leap that lets staff take up opportunities at various EY GDS teams and locations based on business need, qualifications and experience.

What This Means for Job Seekers, and What Should You Do Next?

Consulting headcount rose 6.0%, the Global Entities group rose 12.3%, and assurance and the Americas both shrank.

• Consulting and tax added people. Consulting headcount rose 6.0% and tax headcount 3.2%, while EY-Parthenon headcount rose only 1.8%.
• If you live in a GDS country, look at GDS directly. The network operates in Argentina, Hungary, India, Philippines, Poland, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Spain and the United Kingdom, and each GDS team has its own job search, from tax to consulting.
• If you are in the Americas, know the numbers. The region's headcount fell to 87,546 while its revenue rose.
• Treat assurance as steady, not growing. Assurance headcount edged down to 130,279. 130,000 EY assurance professionals are now enabled by AI and are applying new technological capabilities to audit work.
• Build the skills EY is training for. The firm's training spend included new learning programs focused on AI and other emerging technologies, leadership and other future-focused skills. EY has also put bonuses behind the human skills AI cannot copy.

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People Also Asked

Q: How many employees does EY have?

A: EY had 415,182 people at the end of June 2026, with headcount counted as personnel at the end of June of each financial year.

Q: Did EY cut jobs in the Americas?

A: Its Americas workforce fell by 4.9%, to 87,546 at the end of June 2026, though EY gives no reason for the drop and does not call it layoffs.

Q: Where does EY Global Delivery Services hire?

A: GDS operates in Argentina, Hungary, India, Philippines, Poland, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Spain and the United Kingdom, across 9 locations and 21 cities.

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