{
  "id": 9002375,
  "title": "8 insights from the ‘Certinia at Dreamforce’ event: AI resets the economics of professional services",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/21/8-insights-from-the-certinia-at-dreamforce-event-ai-resets-the",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-09-21T20:32:03.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "SiliconANGLE",
    "slug": "siliconangle",
    "url": "https://siliconangle.com/2026/09/21/ai-professional-services-fixed-bid-pricing-certiniaatdreamforce/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The “Certinia at Dreamforce” event explored how AI is transforming the professional services industry. Traditionally, firms earned money through hourly billing, but AI is shifting towards fixed bids and outcome-based models. This change is reducing labor demand on individual projects, which paradoxically increases demand for people.\n\nMike Piehl, CEO of Platinum River Innovations LLC, highlighted that while labor needs may decrease, the overall project price is also dropping, leading to more demand for projects and consequently more people needed. Certinia Inc. has integrated its Veda AI suite into a single system for the entire services lifecycle, from selling to billing and delivery. This integration has cut internal costs and increased margins, enabling the delivery of projects that were previously unaffordable for clients.\n\nPrasad Sulur, Certinia's chief business officer, explained that the company's goal is to eliminate entire workflows rather than just achieving small gains. Robert Cesafsky, Certinia's chief operating officer, noted that the company has expanded its AI capabilities significantly since April, with plans to add more agents and actions by the end of the year.\n\nHyland Software Inc. discussed Hyland Premier Care, a solution focused on enhanced support, customer success, and technical account management. Carlos Gutierrez, Hyland's vice president of customer operations, emphasized that aligning data across professional services and customer success helps spare customers from connecting those dots themselves.\n\nCertinia presented itself at Dreamforce as a \"System of Action\" across professional services, customer success, and financial management, with people at the center of its brand. Mimi Spier, Certinia's chief marketing officer, explained that buyers now research through large language models, so credibility is essential.\n\nThunder Inc. manages projects in Certinia’s professional services automation, with Veda layered on top. Tyler Philpot, VP of solution architecture at Thunder, stressed that context engineering is crucial, as precise context yields better agent answers, while overly broad context can lead to hallucinations.\n\nCivica UK Ltd. is consolidating its bespoke systems onto Salesforce and Certinia, creating a single source of truth for estimating, delivery, and revenue recognition. Simon Cornwell, Civica's chief information officer, noted that data residency, sovereignty, and tool governance determine which AI tools are adopted.\n\nNeocol Inc. adopts a human-led AI approach, ensuring agents are behind each stage of the delivery method. James Davidson, Neocol's CEO, explained that continuity in this approach cuts scope creep and removes the sales-to-delivery handoff, although agents that do not return value should be retired.",
  "summary": "AI is rewriting the economics of professional services. Firms that once billed by the hour are quoting fixed bids, compressing delivery timelines and absorbing risk they would previously have pushed onto the client. The labor a single project consumes is falling, and the price with it. The argument has moved past whether the technology works […] The post 8 insights from the ‘Certinia at…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}