Transforming consulting

Dave McCann at IBM Consulting explains why the consulting industry is ripe for transformation with AI 

 

As AI, machine learning, automation and other new technologies transform industries, consulting is likely to be one of the most impacted due to its labour-led business model.

 

By 2026, executives expect consulting spend to exceed 4% of total revenue, but spend is not the only factor that is growing; so are client expectations. In a recent study by the IBM Institute for Business Value, 86% of consulting buyers say they are actively looking for services that incorporate AI and technology assets.

   

Frankly, today’s consulting business models are not enough for the challenges of tomorrow. Consultants must develop new delivery approaches leveraging AI to meet evolving client expectations or risk being outpaced by competitors. With 66% of consulting buyers saying that they will stop working with consulting organisations that don’t incorporate AI into their services, reinventing the consulting operating model is essential for both organisations and their clients. 

 

Keeping pace with change 

So, if the traditional consulting model is no longer fit for purpose, what’s next? To answer this question, we first need to understand the limitations of the old approach. 

 

The traditional consulting model is opinion-led and time-intensive—not to mention project knowledge can be siloed. As technology continues to advance, companies must be able to drive more certainty of outcomes and move fast on new opportunities to stay ahead, which means adapting processes as well as building, testing and releasing new solutions and services quickly.

 

Traditional consulting is simply not agile enough to achieve this acceleration at scale. By leveraging AI and automation, consultants can unlock insights, deliver value faster, eliminate time-consuming manual tasks and focus more on creating value for their clients.

 

The science of consulting

In this new era of consulting, four powerful ingredients must align to deliver value: people, processes, partners and platform.

 

People. AI can amplify the expertise of consultants, taking on highly manual or repetitive tasks and freeing up time for them to focus on what they do best – solving complex, often mission-critical problems using creativity and strategic thinking.

 

However, AI is only valuable if consultants have the skills and capabilities to use the technology effectively. Training and hands-on experience is crucial to prepare consultants for new ways of working. AI-powered delivery platforms can offer a library of software assets and methods, including AI agents and applications, as well as the training to leverage the technology effectively. 

 

Processes. The enterprise of tomorrow won’t run well with today’s people and processes. In the case of consulting, the operating model is being flipped on its head, transforming how services are both being delivered and consumed. Using AI, consultants can deliver higher quality services faster, more cheaply and with more personalisation, shifting their role from advisors to transformation accelerators.

 

In addition, knowledge and data becomes democratised so that it can be leveraged to deliver widespread transformation across the enterprise, increasing the value and scale of consulting expertise. While there is a lot of potential, success demands embracing technology-driven processes and engagement models, both in internal operations and external service delivery. 

 

Partners. Gone are the days of the “one-and-done” engagements, in which consultants were contracted to achieve specific goals on time-limited projects. Instead, businesses will increasingly engage consulting organisations as long-term strategic partners that provide ongoing support for digital innovation initiatives and the rollout of new technologies.

 

Not only do buyers need strategic partners that deliver continuous value, but they need a collaborator with strong ties into an extensive partner ecosystem so they can integrate the best ideas and technologies into solutions tailored to their environments and needs. 

 

Platform. With an AI-powered delivery platform, consultants have a unified workbench that seamlessly integrates software applications, agents, assistants and methods. Unlike traditional approaches that rely on isolated software and tools, a unified platform of AI tools streamlines and connects workflows, enables collaboration amongst people plus assistants and agents, connects consultants with enterprise data and accelerates time to value.

 

By embedding expertise into an accessible platform, consulting organisations can democratise knowledge while providing consistent, repeatable outcomes across engagements—essentially turning expertise into a packaged product. 

 

Building with the best tools

The best approach is ensuring consultants have a wide range of AI software at their fingertips to help them address wide-ranging client needs. Our consultants use a multimodel conversational interface to help them select the best AI model or assistant for any given client project.

 

A new era of consulting 

AI is redefining the consulting industry, disrupting the traditional labour-led business model. By empowering people, redefining processes and revolutionising delivery with AI-powered platforms, consulting organisations can become the strategic partners clients need to fuel growth in the age of AI. 

 

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Dave McCann is Managing Partner, IBM Consulting EMEA 

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and Igor Suka