By 2030, the consulting industry as we know it will no longer exist. The reason? Not a lack of demand for advice, but clients redefining what they expect from consulting services.
More than two decades of working with Fortune 500 and midsize companies at major firms like Slalom and PwC have shown me how rapidly client needs are outpacing traditional consulting models. The rise of AI is not just changing the tools we use — it’s redefining the power dynamics between consultants and their clients.
While AI holds immense promise for transforming consulting, many organizations struggle to unlock its potential. A 2024 Boston Consulting Group report found that 74 percent of companies face hurdles in scaling AI value, often due to internal gaps and unclear metrics. Yet, these barriers will be overcome as technology advances, driving an inflection point where AI shifts from a tool to a transformative force. What once made consulting indispensable — proprietary knowledge, standardized methodologies, and partner expertise — is becoming commoditized. This isn’t merely a shift; it’s a revolution in how value is created and delivered in the consulting world.
The Death of Knowledge Arbitrage and The Rise of Client Capabilities
AI has democratized information, eroding the traditional advantages of consulting firms. According to McKinsey’s 2024 report, AI adoption has surged, with 72 percent of organizations now using AI in at least one business function, up from 55 percent in 2023. This widespread adoption underscores the growing capability of organizations to generate insights and efficiencies internally, reducing their reliance on traditional consulting expertise. For instance, internal AI tools can now deliver market analyses with predictive accuracy rivaling that of external consultants. While exact figures vary, these advancements underscore the growing advantage of AI-driven strategies in transforming business outcomes. The premium on exclusive external expertise is fading as clients build their own capabilities.
The traditional consulting model, centered on time-based billing and episodic project work, no longer aligns with what clients need most: internal capability-building and self-reliance in a world constantly in flux.
This shift is redefining value creation in the consulting industry. Organizations that effectively adopt AI-driven strategies consistently report measurable gains in productivity and efficiency, enabling them to outpace competitors in scalability and value creation. The traditional consulting model, centered on time-based billing and episodic project work, no longer aligns with what clients need most: internal capability-building and self-reliance in a world constantly in flux.
The Consulting Evolution Framework
Consulting approaches are transforming along two critical dimensions: the degree of capability transfer (low to high) and the level of value creation (basic to high-impact). The Consulting Evolution Framework highlights this shift, guiding organizations from conventional services to client enablement. Basic value creation includes expert recommendations and project-based delivery, often resulting in incremental gains and unhealthy reliance on consultants. In contrast, high-impact value creation focuses on sustainable client enablement through collaboration, technology-enabled independence, outcomes like scalability, long-term resilience, the development of an adaptable workforce, and fostering a culture of adaptability within client organizations.
Organizations moving toward high-impact value creation are not merely adopting new tools but fundamentally rethinking their relationship with consultants. This rethinking highlights the imperative for consulting firms to adopt new models that emphasize empowerment, collaboration, and measurable outcomes. By prioritizing these elements, firms can better align their services with client needs in a rapidly evolving environment.
The New Value Creators
The consulting landscape is transforming as clients demand more tailored and sustainable solutions. At least four broad categories of consulting approaches are likely to dominate the field, shifting from dependency-based practices to models prioritizing client enablement.
Platform Enablers: Develop Augmented Analytics and AI Agentic Systems platforms and products that empower clients with independent, scalable solutions, driving better performance, decision-making, and efficiency across areas like supply chain management.
Capability Builders: Success is measured by how effectively these firms empower clients to operate independently, aligning incentives with client outcomes and focusing on long-term capability transfer. Human-centered, technology enabled, focused on meaningful outcomes.
Outcome Guarantors: Build business models that tie compensation to client results by leveraging predictive modeling, forecasting tools under performance-based fee arrangements, and success and risk sharing to foster win-win partnerships.
Ecosystem Orchestrators: Tackle complex challenges involving internal teams, suppliers, and partners. Leveraging digital twins, scenario modeling, federated data governance platforms, and behavioral psychology, they drive collaboration, align stakeholders, and optimize priorities and resources.
The Client Mandate
Success in this new era requires a strategic focus on several key areas for organizations employing consultants. First, organizations must invest in internal AI platforms to build robust analytics capabilities, establish cross-functional governance, and align on metrics that emphasize meaningful value generation. This requires fostering a culture that values cross-functional collaboration, encourages innovation, promotes continuous learning, and effectively manages conflict. These steps reduce dependence on external advisors while fostering self-reliance and sharpening strategic focus.
Second, organizations should demand capability transfer metrics to ensure long-term self-reliance. This includes upskilling internal teams to effectively leverage AI and data tools, ensuring they are equipped to drive innovation and adapt to future challenges. Aligning consultant incentives with measurable outcomes rather than task completion reinforces this shift toward sustained value creation.
Finally, prioritizing ecosystem capabilities and systems thinking equips businesses to address complex challenges, foster collaboration, and achieve better outcomes.
The Consulting Response
Consulting firms must evolve to meet the demands of an AI-driven future where clients are empowered. Well-known firms like PwC, Deloitte, and Accenture are investing significantly in AI capabilities and advanced platforms, but success will hinge on aligning their strategies with meaningful behavioral shifts and new ways of working.
AI-driven knowledge-sharing platforms and predictive analytics synthesize and scale lessons across engagements, enabling firms to deliver more impactful, value-added solutions. Restructuring incentives to reward sustainable client outcomes over short-term deliverables is a critical priority. Equally important is upskilling consulting teams with technical and interpersonal capabilities, such as strategic problem-solving, collaborative leadership, emotional intelligence, and ecosystem thinking capabilities that are necessary to guide transformative change.
Innovations like adaptive decision platforms, AI multi-agent systems, and scenario modelling are reshaping consulting. These tools integrate client and external data with AI-driven insights, enabling seamless collaboration, real-time problem-solving, and faster, more informed decisions. Ultimately, consulting firms must redefine their role — not as external experts solving problems, but as strategic partners fostering client self-reliance and long-term success.
A New Era of Value Creation
Despite these challenges, consulting’s future is promising. Firms that embrace AI capabilities and prioritize client empowerment will thrive, achieving significant growth and client satisfaction.
Tomorrow’s successful consulting firms will:
- Prioritize the development of leadership, organizational adaptability, and cultural dexterity
- Enable rather than just advise.
- Assist in making strategic decisions on building, buying, borrowing, or automating capabilities.
- Guarantee rather than promise outcomes.
- Orchestrate ecosystems rather than take over execution.
The consulting industry isn’t dying; it’s evolving into something potentially more impactful. For consulting firms, the challenge is clear: embrace change, prioritize empowerment, and deliver lasting value. But evolution comes with discomfort. This period will require dismantling outdated practices, rethinking revenue and talent models, and investing in building capabilities that empower, rather than entrench dependency. Yet, through this necessary pain, firms can lay the foundation for enduring relevance and true partnership.
For clients, the opportunity lies in building self-reliance while leveraging these evolving partnerships. Together, consulting firms and their clients can redefine value creation and shape a future where consulting drives lasting, meaningful transformation.
Humberto Salicetti is the founder of Boston-based KreArc Partners; he was previously a Managing Director of the Business Transformation practice at Slalom.
