I was reading an article titled “Why AI will eat McKinsey’s lunch – but not today” – a daring headline, but beneath the drama lies a tectonic truth. Navin Chaddha (Mayfield) calls GenAI “a 100× force,” capable of commandeering routine consulting tasks – from research to benchmarking – shifting value from humans to machines.
For decades, the Big3 – McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Bain & Company – and the Big4 – PwC India, EY, Deloitte, KPMG India – have thrived on frameworks, insights, and armies of analysts. Their competitive edge was knowledge asymmetry, the ability to synthesize information faster & better than clients.
But GenAI dismantles this advantage, democratizing analysis, accelerating insights, and empowering clients to bypass traditional consultants altogether.
Why pay millions for a strategy slide when GenAI can produce robust market models in minutes?
What consulting firms must do now:
1) Blend human wisdom with machine power – human intuition + AI scale.
2) Transition from time billing to outcome billing – aligning with client success.
3) Build proprietary AI tools for both client work and internal processes.
4) Rearchitect delivery: on-demand advisory, GenAI diagnostics, continuous co-pilot support.
But the true disruption lies ahead:
Expect the rise of AI?native consulting firms – lean, platform?powered, category?defining – delivering continuous, outcome?focused value.
In the coming years, these AI-first consulting firms will emerge as category creators, not competitors.
Imagine consulting firms where:
a) Diagnostic workshops are run by AI agents, offering real-time analysis as leadership teams deliberate.
b) Custom strategy reports are dynamically generated, tailored to a client’s evolving context and data streams.
c) Predictive operating models simulate outcomes, replacing static plans with living, learning roadmaps.
d) Continuous advisory subscriptions deliver daily insights, nudges, and decision support – not just decks.
This changes not just who advises, but how value is delivered.
No longer episodic consulting cycles but embedded intelligence…
No longer human consultants as sole advisors but hybrid human-AI teams working in tandem with clients.
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The consulting model is evolving – from PowerPoint to platform, from frameworks to foresight & from hourly billing to scalable algorithms.
Clients stand to gain enormously: faster insights, sharper execution, aligned incentives, and significantly improved ROI. Consulting will become more affordable, more actionable & more accountable.
Firms that adapt will amplify productivity without multiplying personnel, unlocking hyper-scale.
The next decade won’t belong to the largest firm – it will belong to the smartest, the fastest, and the most AI-empowered.