There’s something changing in the consulting world that not everyone’s saying out loud. Clients are starting to figure out that a surprising amount of strategic advice, analysis, and even deck-building can now be done with a prompt. And once they try it? They don’t unsee it.
I’ve seen this shift firsthand in enterprise environments where consulting dollars used to go toward traditional strategy packages or long-term advisory roles. Now, those same budgets are being redirected: not to reduce cost, but to expect more return. Clients want insight faster, cleaner execution, and less time spent on surface-level work.
“We’re not spending less: we’re just expecting more for it now. If we’re going to invest, we want insights we can act on tomorrow, not a slideshow we already knew.”
That’s what AI is quietly doing in the background: compressing the value chain. The work that used to take weeks now takes hours. The effort that used to justify the fee now fits into a weekend with the right AI setup.
What’s Getting Eaten
It’s not all of consulting : but it’s the kind that leans heavily on templates, frameworks, and pattern-matching. If your output is a variation of the same slide deck you’ve delivered twenty times before, AI is already nibbling at your margins.
Research briefs? Done faster. SWOT analysis? Prompted and polished. Market scans? Summarized overnight.
Being the smartest person in the room still matters : but the smartest ones are already using AI to take that intelligence further. They’re not wasting it on formatting slides or chasing data. They’re using it to spot patterns faster, pressure-test strategy, and ask better questions. And it never forgets what McKinsey said in 2017.
But Here’s What AI Still Can’t Do
It can’t navigate a client’s internal politics. It doesn’t know how to talk a nervous CFO down from a bad decision. It won’t take a midnight call from a VP whose team just revolted over a new rollout.
Real consulting isn’t just answers. It’s context. Nuance. And trust.
What AI changes is who gets to build those relationships. Because now, the firm that can deliver insight faster, frame it better, and shift midstream without four days of prep is going to win. And keep winning.
Where the Real Advantage Lives
Some firms will try to ignore this shift. They’ll double down on what worked before and hope clients don’t notice the difference. But others are doing something smarter.
They’re not just learning how to use AI. They’re embedding it into their delivery. They’re turning it loose in the research phase, using it to challenge assumptions in real time, and relying on it to pressure-test their own thinking before it gets anywhere near a client.
I’ve watched teams with offshore analysts outpace more expensive domestic groups by combining skilled judgment with smart automation. And I’ve seen business units shift from reactive to proactive, not because they hired someone new, but because they deployed the right AI with the right thinking behind it.
It’s like handing a Formula One driver a car that suddenly goes twice as fast. If they know how to handle it, they’re not just faster : they’re more strategic, more precise, and more dangerous to the competition. That’s the advantage.
Because when you’ve spent decades helping shape platforms, building IP, and delivering major enterprise solutions around the world, you already know how to win. AI doesn’t replace that. It accelerates it. It lets you skip the fluff and focus on what really moves the needle.
That’s the real differentiator. It’s not about automating the whole job. It’s about shortening the distance from data to decision, without sacrificing insight.
So What’s Next?
If you’re a consultant, or work with them, the question isn’t whether AI will reshape the engagement. It already has. The better question is: who will still be worth hiring?
Clients still want guidance. But they’re going to start expecting speed. And adaptability. And substance.
If you’re confident bringing these qualities into every engagement, and you know how to make AI part of your delivery instead of fearing it, you’re not getting replaced.
You’re going to be the one replacing others.
