Two years ago today, on August 29, 2023, we published Decoding Generative AI in Consulting: Opportunities, Challenges, and the Path Ahead predicting how generative artificial intelligence (AI) would reshape the consulting industry. We predicted that AI would compress delivery timelines, shift required skill sets, and introduce new forms of risk. Two years later, we’re revisiting those predictions. The verdict? The transformation has been faster and more far-reaching than we ever expected.
What We Got Right
✅ Strategy Formulation: Fully Realized
AI now synthesizes vast datasets, detects anomalies, and recommends strategic options in real time. Tasks once requiring a team of analysts over days take minutes. Clients no longer pay for data gathering; they pay for judgment and action.
✅ Project Management Automation: On Target
AI manages workplans, resource allocation, cost modeling, and risk tracking dynamically. Consultants focus more on impact delivery, less on status updates.
✅ Skill Set Shift: Confirmed
Firms need fewer entry-level analysts but more AI-fluent generalists who interpret and guide AI outputs. Partners and managers increasingly take hands-on delivery roles.
✅ Lean Delivery Teams: A New Norm
Teams have shrunk from 10+ consultants to 2–3 working alongside AI agents. AI drafts deliverables; consultants craft narratives; partners drive insights.
✅ Cost Compression: Validated
The traditional bill-by-hour model fades as clients expect automation to replace manual effort.
✅ Internal Adoption: Embedded
Brookey & Company now uses AI across engagements producing custom diagnostics and benchmarking via solutions like OrgCore™.
Risks We Called Early
✅ Data Privacy and Security
From underestimated concerns to board-level priorities, clients demand private LLMs, detailed audit trails, and governance.
✅ Model Bias and Ethics
Bias in training data remains a challenge. Blind reliance on foundational models creates risks, particularly in the public sector and healthcare domains.
✅ Technical and Regulatory Complexity
Validating AI-generated outputs and navigating a fast-evolving regulatory landscape are now critical competencies.
✅ Reputational Risk
Misuse of generative AI has already resulted in reputational damage across industries. Deepfakes and voice clones are now used for disinformation, impersonation, and fraud.
“We didn’t wait for AI to redefine consulting. We anticipated the shift, acted early, and rebuilt delivery around expertise and automation. That’s why clients trust us to navigate what comes next.”
What Comes Next
AI-driven rapid decision-making has pushed out annual strategic cycles in favor of continuous, real-time recalibration. Insights surface constantly, and execution begins within days, not quarters. We didn’t wait for AI to redefine consulting. We anticipated the shift, acted early, and rebuilt delivery around expertise and automation. That’s why clients trust us to navigate what comes next.
Over the next 18 months, anticipate dramatic dismantling of legacy delivery models, ubiquitous AI integration into enterprise systems, and irreversible shifts in workforce dynamics.
2025–2026 Forecast
Headcount reductions at traditional consulting firms accelerate as AI absorbs baseline analysis work
Entry-to-3-year analyst roles permanently reduced or eliminated across consulting, finance, and legal
AI-generated outputs embedded directly into ERP, CRM, and KPI dashboards, shrinking the need for third-party integrators
Deepfakes and voice clones leveraged in targeted attacks on institutions, executives, and investors
AI-powered attackers bypassing MFA, requiring new security frameworks at board level
White-collar job compression expands into legal, finance, and medicine
Consulting delivery shifts to boutique firms and independents operating on equal footing with Big 3/Big 4
Strategy execution timelines shorten from quarters to weeks as real-time recalibration becomes the norm
Generative AI adoption expands in regulated industries (healthcare, aerospace, defense) under new compliance models
SaaS platforms embed AI agents natively, reducing demand for costly systems integrators
Introducing Expert Defined Loop (EDL) — Our Real-World Breakthrough
Through extensive prompt engineering experiments and internal pilot projects, Brookey & Company quickly realized that traditional Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) and Expert-in-the-Loop (EITL) models were inadequate for delivering consistent, high-impact consulting outcomes in generative AI engagements.
Only by adopting the EDL approach could we unlock the full potential of AI in consulting. Unlike reactive oversight models where experts merely monitor or fix AI outputs, EDL empowers domain experts to actively define, calibrate, and govern the AI’s feedback loops and learning processes.
This means consultants design the precise rules, guardrails, and iterative cycles that drive AI agents’ continuous improvement—embedding deep human expertise directly into automated workflows. The collaboration between human and machine evolves from simple supervision to a dynamic, expert-driven partnership where judgment is proactively encoded into AI decision loops.
EDL is not theory or speculation. It is the only approach proven operationally effective for delivering superior, reliable, and scalable outcomes in real consulting projects at Brookey & Company.
This paradigm shift marks the true next frontier of consulting in the AI era—where human insight doesn’t just oversee AI autonomy but architects the very loops that guide it, enabling ongoing, trustworthy value creation.
Implications for Clients
Accelerated strategic execution transforming business agility
Reduced analysis costs with enhanced focus on judgment and implementation
Senior experts steering AI-driven processes, ensuring quality and ethics
Streamlined consulting engagements delivering higher impact faster
Navigational frameworks that mitigate emergent AI risks with confidence
Summary
Two years after our original 2023 forecast, Brookey & Company not only confirms our accuracy but recognizes we underestimated the disruption’s pace. AI has fundamentally reshaped consulting strategy, delivery models, risk frameworks, and talent roles.
Our proprietary AI tools like OrgCore™, Government Opportunity Analyzer™, and Project Planning Sherpa™ are operational realities driving client success with compressed timelines, cost reduction, and elevated decision-making.
Looking ahead, AI’s influence will permeate complex domains well beyond consulting—semiconductors, autonomous logistics, aerospace systems—and SaaS platforms embedding AI agents will lessen dependency on third-party integrators.
Human interaction retains value today, but the clock is ticking. The future demands firms that anticipated this wave and built the tools and mindset to lead through it.
Partner with Brookey & Company
AI is reshaping strategy, delivery, and governance across industries. Brookey & Company helps organizations move from experimentation to operational impact with proven frameworks, proprietary tools, and expert-driven guidance. Ready to navigate the next era of disruption with confidence?
Prefer email? Reach us at info@brookeyco.com