One piece a week on AI commercialization for professional services firms. What's working, what isn't, where margin is moving.
The companies that won asked what was newly possible to sell. The ones that lost asked how to protect what they already sold.
Labels fought streaming. Banks missed the shift to fast, cheap digital payments. Enterprise software vendors treated cloud as cheaper hosting. The same pattern is playing out in professional services right now.
Most firms know they need new AI-driven services. Few know what a finished offering looks like — the brief, the pricing, the delivery model, the first client conversation.
Sequoia Capital told its portfolio companies that the next trillion-dollar company won't sell software. It will sell the work professional services firms do now.
You've seen the McKinsey stat. 88% of organizations adopted AI. Only 6% see real earnings. Here's the question that separates them.
Not sure where to start? See where your firm stands — 8 minutes, no account required.
The managing partners furthest along in thinking about AI are often the most stuck. There's a reason for that.
Every managing partner knows AI compresses billable hours. Almost none have operationalized the obvious answer: change what you sell.
Your firm has adopted AI. Your team is faster. But nobody has connected that speed to new revenue — and that's a different problem than the one your AI vendors are solving.
Browsers, mobile, SaaS, Bitcoin, AI. The same commercial pattern plays out every time. The firms that figure out what to sell differently win.