--- title: "Beyond the Prompt: How Consultancies Can Actually Win with AI" description: The future of consulting belongs to firms that use AI not as a gimmick, but to sharpen and scale their true proprietary value. image: https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/hubfs/Blog/How%20Consultancies%20Can%20Actually%20Win%20with%20AI.jpg --- [![logo in front white\_mobile](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/hubfs/Logos%20TVA/Logo/logo%20in%20front%20white_mobile.svg "logo in front white_mobile")](https://thevisibleauthority.com) [![the visible authority ](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/hubfs/Identity/Logo/logo%20and%20text%20white_nobackground.svg "the visible authority ")](https://thevisibleauthority.com) - [About us](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/about) - [Insights](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/blog) - [Contact](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/support-request) # Beyond the Prompt: How Consultancies Can Actually Win with AI ![Luk Smeyers](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Images%20of%20Luk/Luk%20Smeyers.png?width=56&name=Luk%20Smeyers.png) [Luk Smeyers](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/blog/author/luk-smeyers) 03 November 2026 While generic AI commoditises routine research, analysis, and content creation, it cannot replicate deep, evidence-based industry expertise. The future of consulting belongs to firms that use AI not as a gimmick, but to sharpen and scale their true proprietary value. ## Every Consulting Firm Has AI Now, but Nobody Has an Edge AI tools are everywhere: - ChatGPT has reached over 1 billion monthly users ([*Source*](https://www.reuters.com/technology/chatgpt-app-hits-1-billion-monthly-active-users-record-time-data-shows-2026-06-02/)). - 88% of organisations regularly use AI in at least one business function ([*Source*](https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai-2025)). - 82% of senior leaders use generative AI weekly; 46% use it daily ([*Source*](https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/how-are-companies-using-gen-ai-in-2025/)). And the consulting industry is no exception.  In reviewing hundreds of consultancies annually, we find that despite high adoption rates, few have a true competitive edge. This pattern holds across practices in large firms, boutiques, and mid-sized practices. Using AI tools, everybody can research, analyse, and write proposals faster. AI can accelerate content creation, framework development, and many parts of consulting delivery, improving productivity across the consulting firm. It is becoming completely normal. But this ‘normal' creates a commercial problem that receives far less attention than AI adoption itself. When every consulting firm has access to increasingly similar technology, AI access stops being a meaningful source of competitive advantage. As AI makes generic research, analysis, content, and capabilities increasingly abundant, buyers will have less reason to pay a premium for widely available consulting work. Pressure on hours, rates, and lower-stakes work will keep mounting. Statements about using cutting-edge tech no longer differentiate a firm. Buyers have access to the same tools and increasingly use them to handle work they used to outsource. Using AI to create market differentiation when, in reality, it's used for generic tasks will only dull a consulting firm's edge and make it more replaceable. It will blend in further with the noise. ## When Does AI Make a Consultancy More Valuable? The natural question is: is there a way to use AI that puts a stronger spotlight on a consulting firm’s edge? The answer is yes. And the secret lies in having value that is not related to AI – something that the consulting firm has accumulated over years of client work: - Specific client problems understood in depth. A nuanced understanding of clients' problems, their context, and why they're difficult yet imperative to solve. AI can’t generate this expertise. It requires years of project work, expertise-building, and consistently delivering predictable outcomes. - Patterns repeatedly observed across engagements. AI doesn't provide insights into which solutions tend to work, what fails, or what determines whether an engagement succeeds. Repetition of projects over time is how consulting firms build a library of observations. This lets them spot patterns, make reliable estimates, anticipate challenges, assign accountability, and create engagement roadmaps. - Evidence linking certain actions to better outcomes. Ever type two opposing statements into ChatGPT one after another and watch it spit out “You are absolutely right” both times? That’s not insight. It’s a model designed to please its user. Real value lies in the evidence a consulting firm aggregates over years of client engagements, showing how certain methodologies lead to stronger outcomes and why Context A requires Approach X while Context B should use Approach Y. - Methods refined through years of delivery. I have yet to come across a consulting firm or independent expert who has struck gold with their first method for addressing a problem within their scope of expertise. 99.9% of methods require time and optimisation: seeing what works, adjusting and testing a process, tweaking tech stacks, refining hiring practices, and so on. There is no shortcut. - Proprietary data, tools, and intellectual property. Diagnostic tools, benchmarks, and datasets accumulated over years can reveal trends, changes, and patterns; a consulting firm can build various assets over time through its work. - Strong points of view grounded in experience. Trust is at the foundation of consultancies’ client engagements. Strong points of view, shaped by expertise and evidence-backed experience, are often the foundation of that trust. When we see a medical specialist, we expect a clear diagnosis grounded in experience that tells us what’s wrong and what course of action will fix it. We don’t go in expecting a generic list of possibilities to pick from, cross our fingers, and hope it fixes the underlying issue. The same applies to consulting. - Expertise that has been codified and can be repeated. Knowledge systematised into documented principles, decision-making processes, frameworks, and delivery methodologies is exponentially more valuable than whatever process AI can speed up or replicate. Codified knowledge can be repeated, scaled, and priced at a premium. These are the various forms of value in consulting. They don't depend on AI, and AI didn't create them. You can’t replicate them with an AI prompt. AI tools can help with everything else, all the menial tasks that take time away from delivering core value. That’s how we’ve observed consulting firms using AI to amplify their edge. AI will erode the premium on generic consulting capability. The next consulting advantage is the ability to repeatedly turn accumulated expertise into client value: solving specific problems with proven approaches, producing more predictable outcomes, reducing buyer risk, and generating more revenue without adding labour at the same rate. *Recommended reading: [Why Many Consultancies Fail to Reap the Benefits of Specialisation](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/blog/why-many-consultancies-fail-to-reap-the-benefits-of-specialisation)* ## Consulting Firms Need to Transition from Delivering Tasks to Delivering Value ### The Codification Challenge Most established consulting firms have valuable experience but fail to document it systematically. Proprietary knowledge remains locked inside individual partners, old proposals, project folders, and workshop decks. Key takeaway: Relying on generic AI to compensate for uncodified internal knowledge creates a downward spiral of price competition and commoditization. ### Building a Repeatable Edge Consultancies must shift revenue toward specific, proven, and repeatable value. This requires transforming accumulated experience into structured assets: clear value propositions, codified frameworks, proprietary delivery methods, and reliable client outcomes. Key takeaway: Sustained success depends on codifying internal expertise into scalable, repeatable assets rather than relying on generic AI tools. ### Moving Beyond Task Automation Focusing on basic tasks is a strategic dead end. As AI automates routine activities, true differentiation comes from diagnosing high-impact problems and executing them expertly, built over hundreds of engagements. On the other hand, an AI tool can't replace the ability to diagnose and solve a high-impact problem expertly. That value comes from hundreds of tasks, years of expertise, dozens or hundreds of similar projects successfully delivered in the past, the ability to recognise patterns and derive insights, processes optimised over time, proprietary frameworks and methodologies, and more. Key takeaway: AI should amplify and scale your firm's distinct edge—starting with systematic value documentation and codification. **Interested in receiving all our learnings to build a better consulting firm?[Subscribe to our newsletter.](https://share.hsforms.com/1T-1RM40GQySH0wJZP4M2aQ3gng9?__hstc=212170763.895d2a530d7462f57984a1f503d289b5.1658208848729.1658493022934.1658498148560.9&__hssc=212170763.17.1658498148560&__hsfp=398685282&hsCtaTracking=0c1c0b6a-8224-4adb-83e6-87af233f9a09%7C823b09a2-cd5b-49c7-aebb-90c179e62d05)** ![Luk Smeyers](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Images%20of%20Luk/Luk%20Smeyers.png?width=66&name=Luk%20Smeyers.png) [Luk Smeyers](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/blog/author/luk-smeyers) Luk’s extensive career in the consulting business, which spans more than 20 years, has seen him undertake a variety of influential positions. He served as the European CHRO for Nielsen Consulting (5,000 consultants in the EU), founded iNostix in 2008—a mid-sized analytics consultancy—and led the charge in tripling revenue post-acquisition of iNostix by Deloitte (in 2016) as a leader within the Deloitte analytics practice. His expertise in consultancy performance improvement is underlined by his former role on Nielsen's acquisition evaluation committee. After fulfilling a three-year earn-out period at Deloitte, Luk harnessed his vast experience in consultancy performance improvement and founded TVA in 2019. His advisory firm is dedicated to guiding consulting firms on their path to becoming high-performing firms, drawing from his deep well of consulting industry expertise and financial acumen. Share this article on [mailto:?subject=Check%20out%20Beyond%20the%20Prompt:%20How%20Consultancies%20Can%20Actually%20Win%20with%20AI%20&body=Check%20out%20https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/blog/beyond-the-prompt-how-consultancies-can-actually-win-with-ai](mailto:?subject=Check%20out%20Beyond%20the%20Prompt:%20How%20Consultancies%20Can%20Actually%20Win%20with%20AI%20&body=Check%20out%20https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/blog/beyond-the-prompt-how-consultancies-can-actually-win-with-ai) ## Further Reading [![The 5 Main Challenges Almost Every Consultancy Struggles With](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Unposed%20group%20of%20creative%20business%20people%20in%20an%20open%20concept%20office%20brainstorming%20their%20next%20project.-1.jpeg?width=300&name=Unposed%20group%20of%20creative%20business%20people%20in%20an%20open%20concept%20office%20brainstorming%20their%20next%20project.-1.jpeg)](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/blog/the-5-main-challenges-almost-every-consultancy-struggles-with) ##### [The 5 Main Challenges Almost Every Consultancy Struggles With](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/blog/the-5-main-challenges-almost-every-consultancy-struggles-with) This article was last updated on 16 April 2023. In the past couple of years, I’ve audited the... [Read more](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/blog/the-5-main-challenges-almost-every-consultancy-struggles-with) [![Without Internal Alignment, a Boutique Consultancy Is Doomed](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Blog/Without%20Internal%20Alignment%20a%20Boutique%20Consultancy%20Is%20Doomed.png?width=300&name=Without%20Internal%20Alignment%20a%20Boutique%20Consultancy%20Is%20Doomed.png)](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/blog/withough-internal-alignment-boutique-consultancy-is-doomed) ##### [Without Internal Alignment, a Boutique Consultancy Is Doomed](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/blog/withough-internal-alignment-boutique-consultancy-is-doomed) This article was last updated on 12 December 2024. A few months ago, a consultancy of around 40... [Read more](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/blog/withough-internal-alignment-boutique-consultancy-is-doomed) [![The Problem with Consulting Firms’ Outcome Claims](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Blog/The%20Problem%20with%20Consulting%20Firms%E2%80%99%20Outcome%20Claims.jpg?width=300&name=The%20Problem%20with%20Consulting%20Firms%E2%80%99%20Outcome%20Claims.jpg)](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/blog/the-problem-with-consulting-firms-outcome-claims) ##### [The Problem with Consulting Firms’ Outcome Claims](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/blog/the-problem-with-consulting-firms-outcome-claims) Most consulting firms claim outcomes, but unfortunately, most of it is consulting fluff. [Read more](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/blog/the-problem-with-consulting-firms-outcome-claims) ### Info **The Visible Authority is a brand of:** TVA & Partners BV (legal entity) Jan Verbertlei 37 2650 Edegem Belgium [contact@thevisibleauthority.com](mailto:contact@thevisibleauthority.com) ### Menu - [About Us](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/about) - [Insights](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/blog) - [Contact](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/support-request) ### Connect with us on LinkedIn: [Luk Smeyers](https://www.linkedin.com/in/luksmeyers/)  [Florian Heinrichs](https://www.linkedin.com/in/fmheinrichs/) Copyright © 2025 The Visible Authority - All Rights Reserved. - [Privacy Policy](https://www.thevisibleauthority.com/privacy-policy)