Consulting Is Not ‘Selling Your Expertise’ (nor will it be replaced by AI)

A big misconception is that consulting is trading your expertise for money. It's not, consulting is the work of trading your methodology and personal abilities to bring about client outcomes for money

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“AI Killed Consulting”

There’s no shortage of these kinds of stories.

Skipping aside from the fact that this story is surely apocryphal, there might be a point where you need to respond to the question, ' Why do we need a consultant?’

See: If You Can’t Answer This Question, Clients Won’t Hire You

AI Raises The Bar For Consultants - That’s A Good Thing

It’s worth acknowledging the potential downsides of AI for consultants that we need to consider. These include:

1. AI replaces tasks. We can easily imagine AI replacing tasks, (not entire roles). Data analysis, benchmarking, report generation, or scenario modelling are already being done faster and cheaper by AI tools. AI will replace (or reduce the need for) research/slide-creating roles undertaken by more junior-level consultants at larger firms. You don’t have to spend long browsing r/consulting to sense that might already be happening. Many consider the power of AI to be having infinite interns.

2. Low-value work is vulnerable. ChatGPT can replicate generic frameworks, summarise public information, and template strategies in seconds. I love Rands’ thoughts on AI setting a new floor for content. The same is true for consulting; if you asked ChatGPT to solve the same problem you’re trying to solve, would your solution be miles better (or worse)? It’s worth doing this to see how great a gap that is.

3. Clients might rely on AI for tasks they previously hired consultants or freelancers for. This could reduce the scope of consulting work, but I’m less confident about this.

Personally, I haven’t seen any negative impact on my work from the new breed of generative AI tools. Instead, I’ve only experienced the upsides, such as ease of creating graphics, presentations, and videos; spellchecking; meeting note-taking; and more.

But, regardless, this whole debate hinges on a big misunderstanding of what consulting is.

Consulting Is Not ‘Selling Your Expertise’

Let’s consider what consulting is.

A common misconception about consulting is that it’s about selling your expertise (or ‘renting out your expertise’).

It’s the idea that [Company A] doesn’t know what to do and brings in a consultant to help.

i.e. You’re going to show up, share your wisdom, get paid handsomely for it, and leave. The problem is that wisdom, at least knowing more about a topic than your clients, isn’t as valuable as you might think.

As I wrote a while back:

This is the danger of working at a single organisation for a long time. You don’t know how much of your success you should attribute to your organisation’s unique context. You don’t know what strategies can be applied to other organisations and which only worked at your organisation.

The hard part isn’t wisdom, but blending wisdom with a methodology to drive tangible outcomes.

The key principles to understand here are:

1. Clients want results, not knowledge. Consulting is about helping clients achieve something they couldn't do alone. This might include:

   1. Solving a problem.

   2. Making a decision.

   3. Navigating change.

   4. Implementing solutions.

   5. Avoiding mistakes.

   That requires more than lots of experience and knowledge working in a field.

   You can’t go into a company, pull the pin on a knowledge grenade, and walk out thinking you’ve done a great job.

   AI can replicate and generate knowledge, but it can’t transform that knowledge into outcomes any more than a library can lead a project or a textbook can convince a sceptical stakeholder.

2. Consultants have a methodology, not just expertise. You need a methodology (ideally a repeatable one).

   

   This methodology solicits new inputs and meshes them with knowledge and a process to drive outcomes. This includes the full range of consulting techniques such as:

   1. Problem Diagnosis: Framing the real problem is often better than what the client can do.

   2. Facilitation: Bringing the client team to a consensus and overcoming internal obstacles.

   3. Implementation Support: Turning recommendations into action (sometimes even doing hands-on work).

   4. Coaching and Change Management: Helping people adapt, build capabilities, and stick with the solution.

   5. Accountability: Keeping initiatives moving when clients’ own momentum stalls.

   You can find the six primary services you might offer clients here. The key thing is that the ‘knowledge’ part accounts for a tiny fraction of the consultant’s value.

3. Consultants build trust and gain influence to bring about desired outcomes. There’s a big difference between convincing and persuading. You can convince someone to do something with information when they’re already leaning in that direction. But the real work of a consultant lies in persuading.

   That means winning over stakeholders and building a coalition of people eager to make things happen and keep things moving forward.

   

   ChatGPT can’t do this…

   You have to earn the right to propose solutions by gaining the client’s trust, navigate internal dynamics, and influencing decision makers. It’s so much more than having the right answer.

The mindset of consultants, especially new consultants, often reminds me of well-intentioned NGOs setting up water pumps in sub-Saharan Africa. Many of the pumps were abandoned within months due to a lack of spare parts, supply chain distribution issues, lack of local training, need assessment, and financial modelling. You can’t just stage a single intervention; you have to bring about systemic change that recognises the internal needs and capabilities on the ground.

Consulting is never about selling your expertise. Expertise is simply the entry ticket to doing the work. And the shelf-life of expertise isn’t excellent in this era; it becomes less relevant every single day.

Consulting Combines Expertise With Personal Skills To Bring About Change

Consulting is the ability to combine expertise with a methodology and your personal skills in:

1. Empathy.

2. Judgement.

3. Perspective.

4. Execution support.

As you progress up the levels of consulting, these are the skills you need to acquire. Fortunately, they are all things AI is unlikely to replicate anytime soon.

Good luck!

Richard Millington

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