Consulting Firms
Clients did the analysis before the call. They’re still paying for the judgment.
Sell it as a paid diagnostic sprint. West Monroe’s Agentic Transformation Service and Slalom’s Zero Legacy already do.
The pressure consulting firms are facing right now.
Analysis Commoditization
Clients are running their own market analysis, competitive research, and strategic planning with AI.
Staffing Model Compression
AI tools are replacing junior consultant capacity, compressing your staffing model from the bottom.
Proposal Competition
Other firms are repositioning around AI-augmented offerings and taking proposals that used to be yours.
80%
of junior-analyst research and slide work AI can already do.
BCG
18%
of professional services firms can measure their AI return.
Thomson Reuters Institute 2026
25%
of global consulting fees now run on outcomes, not hours.
McKinsey
Assessment
See how your firm compares.
Eight minutes. You get an assessment showing where your firm has real commercial gaps, how you compare to peers in your vertical, and a report you can take to your next partner meeting.
See where you standWhat firms like yours are designing in the Workshop.
Most firms feel the itch and start experimenting: a few tools, a pilot, a project that looked promising on paper. The expensive version is finding out a year in that clients won’t pay for it. Whether you’re still deciding where to start or already two pilots in, the Workshop narrows what you take to your clients before you commit more budget to building it.
Every engagement is different. Your team’s domain expertise is the input. These are the kinds of offerings consulting firms leave with, specified and priced. Your team tests them with named clients, then builds what earns it.
Related reading
What the Billable Hour Was Hiding
For decades the hour bundled execution and judgment into one number, and nobody had to pull them apart. AI changed that, and most firms still can’t say how much of their rate is which.
Sequoia Just Put a Trillion-Dollar Bounty on Your Business
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.
Questions
Clients are running the analysis on AI before the call. A 10-week project that now takes six is a 30–40% cost reduction, and clients know it. McKinsey redirects $12 million per month in consultant capacity from research to higher-value work through its internal Lilli platform. AI handles roughly 80% of junior analyst research and slide work (BCG).
Paid diagnostic sprints, fixed-scope and fixed-fee, producing a roadmap as the entry point. AI-augmented strategic advisory retainers priced on access rather than hours. Implementation monitoring sold as subscription. West Monroe shipped its Agentic Transformation Service. Slalom ships Zero Legacy. Cybersecurity consulting is the fastest-growing service line in the industry (Business Insider).
TSIA puts it directly: “The more efficient you become, the more revenue you risk losing” under hourly pricing. About 25% of global consulting fees now run on outcomes, not hours (McKinsey). 73% of consulting clients prefer value-based pricing tied to measurable outcomes. The deliverable isn’t the scarce resource anymore. Judgment is.
Sequoia Capital mapped management consulting as a $300–400 billion opportunity, the largest on their list. Their annotation: “Best candidates TBD.” Business Insider reported in March 2026 that AI is “changing the pyramid,” with clients demanding individuals who add value and have industry experience, not slide decks. The firms codifying expertise into repeatable platforms have a head start that narrows every quarter.
Professional services leads all sectors in gen-AI adoption: 71% in 2024, up from 33% in 2023 (McKinsey State of AI). Consulting firms using AI internally report 30% time savings on knowledge work (McKinsey, Lilli platform data). Most firms have adopted AI internally without changing what they sell externally.
Only 18% of professional services firms measure AI ROI; 82% don’t or don’t know (Thomson Reuters Institute 2026). Firms with a formal AI strategy are 3x more likely to see positive returns. 40% of firms received contradictory client direction: use AI on some projects, don’t on others. The measurement gap and the policy gap are the same gap.
$15,000
A full day with your senior team, then 2–3 offering briefs. Test what clients will pay for before you build.
Book a conversation30 minutes with Shawn Yeager. No pitch.