After the billable hour.

One piece a week on AI strategy for professional services firms. What’s working, what isn’t, where margin is moving.

Shawn Yeager

August 11, 2026

The Blockers Aren’t Budget, People, or Technology

Most mid-market firms that adopted AI say they were only somewhat prepared for it. The barriers they name have nothing to do with tools.

August 4, 2026

Which Legal Practices Your Clients Can Now Handle Without You

151 funded AI companies now sell into legal work. Of 21 practices, 13 are ones a client can finish without a firm. Four keep the lawyer and bill fewer hours.

July 28, 2026

From Episodic to Continuous: The Revenue Model That Doesn’t Reset to Zero

Every professional services engagement starts at zero. Firms selling always-on monitoring and subscription advisory stop re-selling the same client.

July 21, 2026

The Cut Your Clients Already Planned

Deloitte surveyed 121 corporate legal leaders, the clients who hire outside firms. They expect hourly billing to fall from 72 to 44 percent of work.

July 14, 2026

Tokens Are the New Billable Hour

A metered bill says the seller can’t price the result. Buyers are forcing AI vendors off theirs. Your firm can afford to quit the meter; your vendors can’t.

July 7, 2026

93% of Firms Say They Offer Advisory. Almost None Have Systematized It.

Advisory is supposed to replace the revenue AI is repricing. In most firms it lives in one partner’s head, and no firm can scale what nobody has scoped.

Not sure where to start? See where your firm stands — 8 minutes, no account required.

June 30, 2026

McKinsey Put Numbers on Your Repricing

Your clients decided AI should make your work cost less. McKinsey’s QuantumBlack puts 32 pages of evidence behind that, and prescribes a cure you don’t need.

June 23, 2026

The Most Valuable Input in AI Is the Thing You Sell by the Hour

AI companies spent a decade pricing human work: commodity rates for execution, billions for judgment. Your hourly invoice charges for both at the same rate.

June 16, 2026

YC Published the Playbook for Replacing Your Firm

Y Combinator is teaching founders to build AI-native firms that sell outcomes. Its four targeting criteria double as a diagnostic for your exposed services.

June 9, 2026

Efficiency Is the On-Ramp, Not the Destination

A $5.6B legal AI vendor’s own customers report winning new work and moving to fixed fees. The efficiency story is real. It’s also only the on-ramp.

June 2, 2026

What the Billable Hour Was Hiding

The hour bundled execution and judgment into one number. AI changed that, and most firms can’t say how much of their rate is which.

May 26, 2026

When Your Client Becomes the Competitor

When your client builds the work you used to sell them, you can’t out-invest them or compete on price. You change what you sell, or you lose the account.

May 19, 2026