Topic
4 essays in this series
AI doesn't make the consulting pyramid more efficient. It puts the pyramid under structural pressure it was not designed to absorb. The firms that adapt earliest will not optimize the old model — they will begin replacing it.
Consulting expertise and consulting labor are distinct economic goods. The pyramid has bundled them together for so long that most firms have stopped noticing the difference. AI is forcing the unbundling.
The time-and-materials model is not just a pricing mechanism. It is a lens that exposes a structural misalignment between how consulting firms spend effort and where clients perceive value.
The traditional consulting leverage model has been stable for decades. AI is dismantling its base faster than the firms that depend on it are willing to acknowledge.