AI is reshaping the consulting industry globally, altering business models, project life cycles and how engagements are priced. Some of these changes are reflected in the local market, with the shift away from analysis-heavy engagements towards the delivery of tangible outcomes the most significant among them.
“Patience has run out for the old consulting model centred on months of analysis, lots of PowerPoint presentations and a lot of very bright people running around telling clients interesting things – the days of that are definitely gone,” said Mark Allderman, cloud and digital lead at PwC South Africa in an interview with TechCentral. “That PowerPoint brick wall still has its place, but it needs to be much shorter and sharper.”
The adoption of AI tools has allowed consulting firms to speed up analysis using a combination of in-house tools and publicly available data. Clients also have access to AI tools, allowing them to analyse their own business problems – sometimes at a proficiency level similar to what they would otherwise pay consultants for. The value from consulting has therefore shifted away from the “what is” portion of an engagement towards the “how to”, said Allderman.
This shift is reflected in the pricing models being explored across the industry. While many engagements are still billed using traditional time-and-materials and fixed pricing models, clients are increasingly embracing models that link remuneration to project outcomes. The most extreme form is a revenue-share arrangement, where clients pay less upfront in exchange for a share of the returns from delivered products.
Rob Godlonton, CEO of iqbusiness, which offers consulting services alongside its IT delivery practice, said his company is seeing similar patterns emerge. Shorter project cycles mean consulting businesses can execute more engagements within a given financial year, and combining this with risk-based pricing gives clients room to take on more projects, driving demand for consulting services higher. “We have to look at different ways of doing things and different business models with our clients,” he said.
Demand driver
The key demand driver at present is companies wanting to extract more value from AI. Many businesses are moving away from experimental implementations in favour of more focused, value-driven projects with measurable outcomes.
“What I say to CEOs is: before you even get excited about AI, make sure you understand your business’s operating model, supply chains and the way your business works end to end. Throwing AI at bad problems or processes that haven’t been streamlined is going to get you doing bad things faster,” Godlonton told TechCentral.
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The precursors for successful AI implementation are digital transformation, cloud adoption and well-structured organisational data. Allderman said demand across all three categories has surged, fuelled by organisations’ desire to incorporate AI into their processes.
AI is also changing how consulting teams are assembled. Internationally, the traditional pyramid model – characterised by many juniors supporting a few partners – is giving way to a diamond structure, where fewer juniors are hired and the bulk of the workforce sits at mid-to-senior level, often with deep expertise in specific technical disciplines. This has led to mass layoffs and reduced junior hiring at large consulting firms abroad.
Allderman said this shift has been under way at PwC for some time, even before AI began reshaping the broader industry. But the international trend is not directly mirrored in South Africa, where skills profiles differ markedly. While markets like the US and Europe have an abundance of talent, South Africa faces shortages – particularly in high-demand technical fields such as data science. Local firms are therefore hiring as much as the market can supply rather than shedding jobs.
Godlonton agrees. “We are still hiring, but we are looking for a different type of person because of AI. Beyond the specialists, there is more demand for people who understand both business and technology.
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“AI will change the industry by shifting what clients demand and what they expect. The types of people clients engage with will also change. Clients are going to expect what we deliver as consulting houses to be more outcomes-driven,” he said. — (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media
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