How Big Consulting Firms Are Cashing In on AI

In just a short time, big consulting firms like Boston Consulting Group (BCG), McKinsey, IBM, and Accenture have racked up $100s of millions selling AI services.

According to The New York Times:

• BCG now derives a fifth of its revenue from AI, up from zero just a couple of years ago.
• McKinsey expects 40% of its business to be AI-related in the near future.
• IBM has secured over $1 billion in AI sales.
• Accenture booked 300 million in AI-related sales last year.

The Times’ reporting suggests the work is diverse and depends on the customer. Big firms are offering services that span everything from regulatory compliance to AI for customer support to establishing guardrails for AI use.

What does this mean for business navigating AI?

I got the scoop from Marketing AI Institute founder/CEO Paul Roetzer on Episode 104 of The Artificial Intelligence Show.

Red-hot demand

The numbers make one thing clear:

The demand for AI services is there.

"We certainly see it ourselves," says Roetzer. "We talk with big enterprises every day that are looking for guidance."

Guidance on what? 

Well, basically everything related to AI.

“They’re trying to figure out their roadmaps for generative AI, trying to put policies in place, do change management, education and training,” says Roetzer. “These are all needs of basically every company we talk to, and it is a massive opportunity for consultants.”

Big problems, big solutions

What does that opportunity look like?

It all comes down to realizing that most companies are further behind than you think.

“I think there’s a tendency to overestimate how far along companies are in this,” says Roetzer. They’re often dealing with bottlenecks and bureaucracy internally that slow down adoption.

“They need help figuring this all out,” Roetzer says. 

“They need the objective third party to come in and work with different stakeholders in the organization, and balance the need to adhere to guidelines and protect data with the opportunity to innovate and reimagine what’s possible in the business.”

What companies really need

So, what do companies really need from consultants? According to Roetzer, businesses need help with fundamental AI-related initiatives like:

1. Figuring out their overall AI strategy
2. Choosing the right platforms
3. Identifying priority use cases
4. Looking beyond efficiency into innovation
5. Change management
6. Education and training

"It's very hard for existing teams within organizations that all have full-time jobs to figure all of this out when they themselves likely have no formal training in the deep understanding of AI," he says.

The paralysis problem 

One of the biggest short-term opportunities for consultants is to simplify things for clients right out of the gate.

Roetzer notes that many enterprises seem paralyzed by trying to solve everything at once.

"They're trying to solve the major platforms. They're trying to solve all of these macro-level things that touch every part of the organization. And they lose sight of how much value can be gained by unlocking single use cases within teams or within individuals," he explains.

This is where companies (and their consultants) can create immediate value with a focus on low-risk, high-reward use cases.

“There’s a lack of understanding that there are thousands of use cases, many of them that are totally innocuous, with no threat whatsoever of data leakage, privacy concerns, coming up against regulations, or ethical issues,” says Roetzer.

“If people took more of an initiative to just start identifying single use cases where they can make an impact—and then stack those use cases—we would get way further ahead.”