The future consulting model may flip traditional roles. Instead of hiring firms for primary analysis, organizations could develop their own 'agentic AI' for strategy creation and use external human experts simply to validate the AI's output, relegating consultants to a secondary role.

Contrary to the belief that AI will eliminate consulting, labs like OpenAI are acquiring consulting firms. This is because large companies need significant human-led projects to integrate AI into existing systems and workflows, a task they aren't staffed to handle internally.

Many companies find that before they can use advanced AI, they must first fix fundamental issues like fragmented processes and poor data management. AI acts as a powerful catalyst for this long-overdue “housekeeping,” which delivers its own significant value.

AI tools act as a 'superpower' for high-agency generalists who possess good taste and deep customer understanding but may lack deep technical specialization. This could reverse the long-standing corporate trend of valuing specialists, making these empowered generalists the most impactful players in a company.

While the "bitter lesson" suggests powerful general models will dominate, vertical AI solutions can thrive by deeply integrating with a company's specific data, workflows, and project context. The model can't know this proprietary information; value is created by the application that bridges this gap.

Enterprises often default to internal IT teams or large consulting firms for AI projects. These groups typically lack specialized skills and are mired in politics, resulting in failure. This contrasts with the much higher success rate observed when enterprises buy from focused AI startups.

AI companies are pivoting from simply building more powerful models to creating downstream applications. This shift is driven by the fact that enterprises, despite investing heavily in AI promises, have largely failed to see financial returns. The focus is now on customized, problem-first solutions to deliver tangible value.

Initially, consulting firms will see a surge in business as corporations hire them to implement AI. However, this is a short-term boom. In the medium-term, the very AI they install will automate their own core functions, leading to their eventual disruption.

A bold prediction that service-based businesses, especially consulting firms, that do not fundamentally reinvent their delivery models and cost structures using AI will fail. The core value of many services is being automated, requiring proactive self-disruption to survive.