Summary: AI is compressing the consulting pyramid and removing the traditional advantages of information and scale. Value is shifting toward judgment, relationships, and individual credibility (amplified by brand).
The Industry Turns to Itself.
The industry is being stripped back to first principles. A consulting answer to a consulting problem.
For decades, consulting has evolved by solving its own structural challenges. Today is no different. AI is not introducing a new problem. It is exposing the assumptions the industry has been built on. It is forcing firms to question what clients actually pay for, and what parts of the model still hold value.
The Old Model: Access to Knowledge
Consulting originally scaled on access to knowledge. Consultants brought outside insight that clients could not easily build internally, drawing on experience across industries, prior engagements, and structured research. Analysts spent significant time compiling case studies, conducting interviews, and synthesising best practices into something actionable.
This created a clear dynamic: consultants were assumed to know more than their clients. In 1980s Japan, McKinsey consultants were even referred to as “sensei”, reflecting that perceived authority.
That model depended on scarcity. It worked when information was hard to access and harder to interpret.
Today, that scarcity no longer exists. Information is widely available, and much of what was once proprietary has been commoditised.
The Industrial Model: Scaling Through Execution
As access to knowledge became less differentiated, consulting firms adapted. The model shifted from insight alone to execution at scale. Firms built large teams to support transformation programmes, digitisation efforts, and operational change.
This industrialised model relied on leverage. Junior-heavy pyramids allowed firms to deliver large volumes of work efficiently, with senior oversight guiding the output.
For the past two decades, this model has been highly effective. It offered predictability to clients and strong economics to firms.
However, it also created dependency on tasks that could be standardised: research, benchmarking, analysis, and first-draft deliverables.
AI is now compressing that layer.
What previously required teams of analysts can increasingly be produced with far fewer people. As we are seeing across the market, teams are becoming smaller, while expectations on senior accountability is rising.
The New Constraint: Judgment
As AI absorbs more of the execution layer, the remaining source of value becomes clearer.
Not tools. Not output.
Judgment.
The ability to frame ambiguous problems, challenge AI-generated outputs, and make decisions in situations where data is incomplete or conflicting. This also includes navigating stakeholder dynamics, aligning leadership teams, and driving action in politically complex environments.
(that paragraph there, is consulting)
These capabilities are difficult to standardise and even harder to scale. They rely on experience, context, and interpersonal skill rather than process alone.
A Shift in Hiring Signals
This shift is already visible in hiring patterns. Across the UK and DACH markets, firms are placing less emphasis on pedigree and more on demonstrated performance. The ability to operate in ambiguity, challenge consensus, and raise the level of a conversation is becoming more important than technical excellence alone.
AI has effectively standardised the baseline. Most candidates now have access to similar tools. What differentiates them is how they interpret, challenge, and apply the outputs of those tools.
As a result, recruitment is aligning more closely with judgment-based capabilities than with traditional markers of potential.
Two Models Are Emerging
In response, the consulting market is beginning to split into two distinct models.
The first is the AI-enabled platform. These firms are building around smaller, senior-led teams supported by AI workflows and increasingly productised delivery models. The focus is on repeatability, speed, and consistent client outcomes. Firms that successfully integrate AI into their operating model, rather than layering it on top, are gaining traction.
The second model is the rise of specialist operators. These are individuals with deep domain expertise, strong networks, and direct access to decision-makers. They are often deployed into high-stakes situations such as M&A, restructuring, or private equity-backed transformations, where independence and clarity of judgment are critical.
In these contexts, experienced external operators can often be more effective than internal teams, particularly when organisational politics would otherwise slow decision-making.
The Shift to Individual Value
The deeper shift sits beneath these models. Historically, value in consulting was concentrated in the firm. Brand, scale, and structure were the primary signals of quality. That is changing.
AI is removing the elements of consulting that were easiest to replicate: access to information and execution-heavy work. What remains is harder to package at the firm level alone.
Judgment. Relationships. Track record. These attributes sit with individuals. As a result, personal credibility is becoming a more significant driver of value. Clients are increasingly buying access to specific people, not just firms. The firm still matters, but more as a platform than as the sole source of differentiation.
This is where personal brand comes back into focus. It has always been there at the top of consulting, but it is now becoming a clear point of differentiation across the market. Platforms like LinkedIn are accelerating this shift. Consultants are no longer just delivered through a firm, they are discovered, followed, and assessed individually.
Thought leadership is no longer optional. It is how you stay in clients’ minds before a mandate exists. In many ways, this is a return to consulting’s earlier model – where individuals, not institutions, carried the weight. The difference now is scale. Visibility compounds. Reputation travels faster. And those who invest in it build leverage that sits beyond any single firm.
(part of the reason I write these posts.)
Implications for Firms and Leaders
For firms, this shift requires a redesign of the model. Simply adding AI to an existing pyramid is unlikely to be sufficient. The focus needs to move towards leaner structures, stronger senior layers, and delivery models that are built around AI from the outset.
For individuals, the implications are equally clear. Technical AI fluency will become expected, not differentiating. What will matter more is the ability to influence decisions, operate in ambiguity, and build a reputation and brand that extends beyond a single firm.
The Takeaway
Consulting is not disappearing but it is being rewired (again).
The future leading firms will be those that build around judgment rather than headcount, structure delivery around AI rather than hierarchy, and invest in individuals that clients trust by name.
At the same time, personal brand is becoming a core asset → reputation is visible, and credibility compounds.
Because in this model, the defining question is no longer where you work.
It is what you are known for.
Ben Appleton is the founder of Strat-Bridge, a specialist executive search partner to the strategy consulting industry. He works with global consulting firms and senior leaders across the UK, Germany, Switzerland, and beyond — helping them build capability at the Partner and Director level.
