For decades, the model was simple. When companies faced a major strategic question, they called the same names: McKinsey. BCG. Bain. A team arrived. A few months passed. A polished strategy deck followed. Sometimes the bill exceeded $1 million.
That model worked when structured thinking, research horsepower, and executive-ready synthesis were scarce. They are becoming less scarce. AI is changing that.
Not because it can replace every consultant today, but because it is rapidly eroding the old reason companies hired them in the first place.
The shift is already visible. The AI consulting market is projected to grow from $8.75 billion in 2024 to $91 billion by 2035. And this is not just hype.
Research shows consultants using AI were 12.2% more productive and completed tasks 25.1% faster.
Now compare the economics. A traditional three-month engagement with a top-tier firm can easily exceed $1 million for a basic five-person team. AI-driven strategy projects can range from $10,000 to $500,000.
That is not just a technology story. It is a business model story.
And it leads to a bigger shift: strategy is moving in-house. Companies no longer want to outsource all the thinking. They want capability transfer. They want internal teams who can frame questions, evaluate options, and make decisions themselves.
AI is accelerating that trend. Today, 72% of organizations already use AI in at least one business function, up from 55% the year before.
So the real question is no longer: can AI replace consultants? It is: what part of consulting is still worth paying for?
That is where things get interesting. Because AI alone is not strategy.
Many AI tools are already good at gathering information, summarizing trends, and analyzing structured data. But the best consultants do something harder.
They surface insights that are not neatly captured in the data layer or research reports. They uncover what lives in people's heads, across departments, inside incentives, and in the unwritten realities of how organizations actually work.
That is where many of the most important strategic signals still live.
AI can synthesize what is visible. It still struggles with what is tacit, scattered, political, or simply living in the air.
So no, AI is not simply the end of the traditional consultant. But it may be the end of the old consulting model, where external firms owned the process, the tools, and the thinking.
What comes next is more interesting: internal teams, powered by AI, but still guided by human judgment strong enough to uncover what no dashboard can fully capture.