Every few years, the consulting industry is declared dead.
First, it was offshore delivery. Then automation. Now it’s AI.
Each time, the headline is the same. “This changes everything.” And in one sense, that’s true. But what AI is changing is not the need for consulting. It’s exposing where consulting lost its way.
AI is not the cause of disruption in professional services. It is the catalyst. The pressure was already there. AI is simply accelerating the industry toward a model that clients have been asking for quietly and now expect explicitly.
Clients do not want Herculean efforts. They want predictable outcomes. They do not want opaque teams. They want clarity and accountability. They do not want endless discovery. They want momentum and sprinted execution.
AI lowers the cost of knowledge. That part is undeniable. What it does not replace is judgment, context, and responsibility. No executive I know is asking a language model to stand behind a decision when the stakes are high. They are asking people they trust.
What has changed is how work gets done.
Consulting has moved from broad, personality-driven engagements to more team-based, specialized, and outcome-oriented delivery. Some call this a shift toward a more transactional approach. I think that framing misses the point.
Transactions today are not impersonal. They are precise. Specialized. Predictable. Clients want speed and certainty, but not at the expense of wisdom. The best engagements blend both. Trusted partnerships set direction and navigate ambiguity. Focused delivery teams execute with speed and discipline.
AI fits naturally into this model, but only if the groundwork is in place.
AI does not create value on its own. It requires clean production data, measurable benchmarks, and clear definitions of success. Without that pre-work, AI simply accelerates bad decisions. Faster wrong answers are still wrong.
This is why human judgment matters more now, not less.
The future of consulting is not humans versus AI. It is human experience paired with advanced technology. Junior talent augmented by tools. Senior talent providing context, trade-offs, and accountability – and also mastering tools. Teams working collaboratively with clients, not delivering answers from a distance.
Pricing models will continue to evolve as well. Effort-based pricing will continue to commoditize. Shared risk structures and productivity-driven constructs will become the norm, assuming clients agree that, foundationally, the data must be ready to support this expectation. Not because these models are trendy, but because they align incentives around value creation rather than activity.
One controversial point I’ll make clearly. Physical teaming still matters. Being in the room changes outcomes. It accelerates trust, sharpens decision-making, and builds shared ownership. AI does not eliminate that. It makes it more important to be intentional about when and why teams come together.
Consulting is not dying. It is being forced to grow up.
The firms that win will be those that embrace AI without forcing it everywhere, pair technology with judgment, and lead with honesty about what creates value and what does not.
That is not the end of consulting. It is the beginning of its next chapter for those who are bold enough to embrace the opportunity that technology and consulting present.
