InBrief: Consulting vs GenAI

What It Is: Companies lean on consulting organizations to bring capabilities to bear in the interest of solving problems.  GenAI has caused disruption in how organizations are thinking about that relationship

Why It Matters: Organizations want to spend money effectively in the interest of fostering innovation, creating competitive advantage, and generating value.  The relatively low cost and speed with which one can write prompts and obtain rapid, well-formed responses challenges many aspects of the time and cost involved in traditional consulting efforts, which is the focus of this article

Where GenAI is Helpful

• It’s important to acknowledge that leveraging AI can be a relatively easy and highly effective way to quickly surface content that is informative and pertinent to a given subject or request

Some Additional Considerations, however… in favor of Consultants

• If every complex business problem was as simple as reading a book, that book would’ve been written (many have, in fact), everyone would read it, and achieved peak effectiveness already.  Except, that’s not the case.  We don’t operate in a perfect world of theoretical norms.  Real life involves context and specifics, including the dynamics, idiosyncrasies, and people that are part of organizations.  Part of the role consultants play is to translate and apply conceptual ideals to real-world environments, and that’s one of the ways that they create value for their clients
• Part of what you buy with consulting is also institutional knowledge that comes from experience working in a given industry, access to other organizations and the ways they operate, etc., that is not “publicly available”.  With the advent of AI, there will be a rise in proprietary data providers that cover gaps in what is available in the public domain, but if you are contracting to access those additional insights, you’re essentially still paying someone for outside perspective
• Business challenges are complex, have multiple dimensions, and your priorities play a significant role in what you ultimately achieve.  Part of the value consultants provide is not just providing a laundry list of things to do or concepts to consider, but a thoughtful list of priorities and way to navigate complex situations with your organization’s realities and your environment in mind
• Another reason organizations look to consultants is to help foster and promote innovation.  Innovation, by definition, is not “best practice”.  It exists in the white space between what is and what could be, and that is not something that can be harvested from a knowledge base, no matter how quickly you can access it, or how well-formed it appears on a screen.  It is a creative act in itself, and having someone help facilitate that process can create substantial value
• To the extent that a consultancy is providing experience on something that is outside of an organization’s core competency, understanding the quality of what comes from an AI-only solution could be difficult to impossible.  If that inquiry is critical to your business, the next question is whether you want to place a bet without understanding whether the answer is based in fact or potential “hallucinations” and the degree to which it is comprehensive at all
• While it is not always the nature of consulting, having an unbiased perspective can be extremely valuable.  The result of an AI inquiry can be based on the nature of the prompt that was written and what the tool knows about that requestor themself.  Strategy consultants are meant to eliminate a level of confirmation bias that could limit the potential of what is possible
• Finally, while we may trust technology to varying degrees in every day life, there is something to be said with the level of trust it takes to rely on it without a level of objective and authoritative support.  Prompting can lead to continually refined results, but there is also value and a benefit to having conversation, a true understanding of needs, and the comfort that comes with actual human interaction and discourse and a solution that is right for “you”.

For Additional Information: Courageous Leadership, Relentless Innovation, and Pushing the Envelope

Excellence doesn’t happen by accident.  Courageous leadership is essential.

Put value creation first, be disciplined, but nimble.

Want to discuss more?  Please send me a message.  I’m happy to explore with you.

-CJG 01/22/2026