Pulse on Consulting Work

I recently left the industry but can speak to one good and three alarming trends I've seen which I believe will continue in the coming 3-5 years. Let's start with the good.

AI is making a huge amount of work much easier. Finding data sources, cutting down on time making BS wording edits to slides and titles is accelerating material development. What were tedious, time consuming tasks which had to be done after all the analysis are now becoming quicker and more efficient. As AI models develop, I can anticipate improvements in selecting the right charts or slides to show data on as well as preliminary insights which you need to refine. In my view, this does leave more "thinking" time, which tends to be the more rewarding part of the job.

Now the negatives. With the positive above, comes the expectation to do more in less time. Yes, AI can accelerate things but since Partners and clients don't fully understand how it works, they tend to demand much more in less time thinking that AI can do it all. They don't realise that freeing up time from tedious work, does not mean you can 2x the complexity of projects without increasing time to deliver. I think this will lead to less pushback, more in-depth specific requests and ultimately more work. 

Consulting is also becoming more cyclical. Rounds of redundancies are and will become more common in the face of shifting demand patterns. Rather than optimising the old model and being conservative during good times to better plan for rainy days, firms just mass hire during the gold rushes and cut ruthlessly during the lulls. At Junior and mid-seniority level, this provides a massive amount of anxiety. You could start at a firm tomorrow and, despite being a good performer, not be certain if you'll have a job in 18-24 months. The literal only way to save yourself is to be a star performer, but the cost of this is that you'll be consistently overworked. You'll be given projects during the good times and scraps of projects / plenty of pitches during the lulls. No break.

A final negative, which is more based on my experience having moved to corporate, is that many companies tend to want much more specialised consulting services now. Although not 0, the days where the larger firms could do it all are coming to an end. You now have boutiques popping up with more niche offerings at better prices and they tend to tick the box for many clients. I personally have 4 projects running with external agencies, all of which require very specific expertise. I would never give all 4 to an MBB / Big 4 with the expectation that they deliver. This may differ by industry, but I can't imagine it does that much.

Overall, I think consulting can be a great place to start a career if you're a talented, ambitious person. On the flip side, I think the number of people (likely due to opportunities available) that can stay in consulting for 5+ years in decreasing. My advice to any younger person entering the industry would be to join a notable firm for 18-24 months max to learn as much as you can and discover what you like. If you find the WLB unsustainable, move to corporate. If you enjoy the problem-solving nature of consulting, pivot to a boutique based on the areas you found most interesting.