The Future of Consulting: How AI is Creating a New Frontier of Data-Driven Decision Making

Across the globe, and increasingly in India, traditional advisory roles are seeing the tremendous potential of AI to significantly enhance the speed and quality of fact-based insights. Consultants and clients alike are already exploring artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance data analysis, foster innovation, and streamline decision-making. With India’s growing digital economy and a strong push for AI adoption through various initiatives such as the National Mission for AI, AI is poised to become a key enabler in reshaping consulting practices and accelerating data-driven decision-making at scale.

India’s consulting industry is growing into a model where consultants increasingly lean on an evidence-based, technology-enabled framework to deliver client value. This means that consultants must make efforts to relook at their business model, skills, and delivery approach to stay in the game.

An IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) study in partnership with Oxford Economics found that 75% of global executives who rely on consulting services expect AI to positively impact their use of consulting. While executives are looking to increase their overall consulting spend, they also expect consultants to deliver greater value with AI. 89% of these executives expect consulting services to provide improved productivity and quality using AI.


This reveals the need for consultants to invest in developing reusable and adaptable AI-enabled capabilities that can be leveraged across multiple engagements. Tools have been developed to enable this include AI assistants that can augment human expertise by creating reusable AI models and platforms and building a repository of AI-enabled assets that can be used across different clients and projects.

Consulting in the age of AI
Beyond faster data processing and deeper insights, AI is bringing a fundamental shift in the consultant-client equation. The new dynamic calls for a more synergetic partnership to identify new opportunities, improving business performance and designing solutions to achieve specific outcomes. The focus is more on co-creating value with clients through ongoing collaboration and iteration.

This shift calls for greater evidence-based experimentation and a focus on continuous iteration. This not only helps ensure user-centric design but also paves the way for stronger long-term relationships based on mutual respect.

Since each business is unique with its own set of challenges, goals, and operational dynamics, consultants need to tailor their advice and offer more personalised recommendations. AI can facilitate this by analysing a client’s specific business data to generate personalised, relevant, and actionable strategic insights.

This personalisation extends beyond just the business model. It encompasses a wide range of aspects from customer experiences to employee engagement and even supply chain optimisation. For instance, AI-generated analysis of customer sentiment data can guide tailored strategies on marketing, product development, and customer service.

Data Driven Insights
The use of data to guide strategy is not a new phenomenon. However, traditional approaches to data processing involved tedious manual data collection, complex analysis, and extensive modelling. AI has brought in a paradigm shift given its ability to process data faster and scale beyond human capability. This not only makes data processing far easier, but it helps uncover insights that were previously hidden.

For example, finance consultants could use AI tools to evaluate years of financial reports, market trends, and consumer behaviour in a fraction of the time that it would have taken earlier. They can use AI-generated predictive models, simulations, and visualisations to deliver better and more timely data-driven decisions that take current market forces or dynamics into consideration.

Transparency and Trust
As the reliance on AI grows, transparency about the use of AI becomes a key foundation for building trust. As per the IBV report mentioned earlier, 93% of consulting buyers say they will only use consulting services from organisations that are transparent in their use of AI.

Consultants must take clients into confidence and educate them on the role that AI will play to create greater value in the engagement. This means establishing robust data management and security protocols as well as clear policies and procedures for AI use. Governance, ethics, and security become key priorities. At the same time, consultants must undergo ongoing education and training on the responsible use of AI.

Through a technology-fueled approach to consulting, consultants can not only transform the way that consulting is used but also evolve the internal services models to make them far more effective.

Reference:

1. https://www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-business-value/en-us/report/consulting-ai

Disclaimer This article was contributed by Rishi Aurora, Managing Partner, IBM Consulting India & South Asia. The facts and opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer only