AI is forcing the consulting industry to reinvent itself.
The biggest firms are racing to weave the technology into nearly every facet of their businesses — from how consultants execute client projects to how employees are trained, promoted, and measured.
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McKinsey, BCG, Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC, and IBM Consulting are all now hiring more technical talent, building AI tools and AI agents, and pushing staff to use them in their day-to-day work.
Business Insider has closely covered how the consulting industry is changing. See our stories below on how AI is reshaping the work, and the firms and startups leading the shift.
How the work of consultants is changing
AI is changing not only how consultants advise clients, but also who does that work.
Consulting firms are now promoting a new class of so-called “forward-deployed engineers” — employees who work directly with clients to customize AI tools, connect them to company data, and turn them into products that solve specific business problems. In some sense, they are becoming the new consultants: part engineer, part strategist, and part translator between AI systems and the companies trying to use them.
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A new dashboard tracks how much KPMG workers use AI. They say it’s easy to game the system.
EY’s talent chief says AI is changing the entire employee lifecycle, from talent development to promotions
KPMG has a new way of pushing staff to make breakthroughs using AI — handing out cash prizes
From McKinsey to PwC, here’s how elite consulting firms are racing to hire engineers — and train everyone else in AI
EY staff are using AI to tell them how AI is going to change their jobs
Inside the AI boom that’s transforming how consultants work at McKinsey, BCG, and Deloitte
The rise of AI agents
AI agents are changing the structure of consulting work itself.
Firms are using them to automate rote tasks, shrink project teams, and shift more work to smaller groups of humans supervising networks of digital coworkers. At BCG, IBM, McKinsey, and elsewhere, consultants are being asked not just to use AI tools but to build, manage, and oversee agents that could reshape the traditional consulting hierarchy.
The race to power AI is on. These 8 consultants are shaping what comes next.
AI is igniting a love affair between Silicon Valley and the consulting industry
The future of consulting at IBM: a real-time dashboard where humans monitor AI agents’ work
AI agents are upending the company org chart
McKinsey CEO Bob Sternfels says the firm now has 60,000 employees: 25,000 of them are AI agents
Inside BCG’s AI product assembly line: ‘Every company has to become a tech company’
The new age of consulting
AI is bringing consulting and Silicon Valley closer together — and even, at times, blurring the line between them. Big firms are trying to become more like tech companies, building software, hiring engineers, and turning their expertise into products.
At the same time, AI startups are coming for consulting’s core business, offering faster, cheaper versions of strategy work, research, and analysis. The result is a new competitive landscape where McKinsey, BCG, Deloitte, and the Big Four are both cozying up with tech companies and defending themselves against them.
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The rise of the AI knock-off McKinsey consultant
McKinsey, BCG, and Deloitte’s new competition is small, fast, and driven by AI
AI is reshaping how McKinsey makes money
Inside the AI startups reinventing consulting: ‘It’s not as good as McKinsey, but it’s instant’
AI is coming for the Big Four too
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