Written after two days in Frankfurt at an AI training event for the European strategy and transactions practice. Three observations about where the industry is going, and three pieces of advice to myself.
Technology versus commoditisation. Over time most technologies become commoditised, as the internet and cloud computing did. Simply adopting AI will not be a sustainable competitive advantage for more than a few years. The real opportunity lies in how AI is applied within specific sectors to solve pressing client problems.
Consulting’s edge. Consultants do not compete on the technical side of AI development. The strength is in applying AI strategically, backed by deep sector expertise: knowing when, where and how to use it to unlock value.
Evolving the field of play. The strategy for consulting firms is to move further up the value chain, away from tasks that will soon be automated and toward guiding clients on AI strategy in their own sector context.
And the advice. Master the tools and stay current, because prompt engineering is becoming an essential skill. Understand agentic AI, where systems act on tasks autonomously, and learn to develop and manage agents for business use. Lean on sector expertise, because deep industry knowledge combined with strategic thinking is the differentiator that does not commoditise.
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