AI Is Changing Consulting – These 5 Skills Now Matter Most

The issue that we have right now with organizations is not just to get them to change, but to get them to change quickly. The structure of consulting companies is changing at the base of a consultancy, where you used to have an army of analysts, 20 analysts, you’re going to replace those 20 analyst with 1 or 2.

And this is happening very quickly. And if consulting companies are having challenges, imagine a company that is not on the cutting edge of change or the difference between a top leader in your field and you as a company that’s trying to catch up. That distance is going to be far too great to be able to bridge.

Throughout history, organizations have evolved and needed to change, evolve or die. The issue that we have now is disruption. The disruption is happening faster than ever in history, and it’s AI, but it’s a whole bunch of other things. There’s a phenomenon called technology convergence, where multiple technologies are converging on a single product or application, multiplying how quickly a particular change happens in a product or in a market, and what have you. The models where you planned, you know, you had your strategic plan and then you delivered over five years, those are gone. We need to now think about agile organizations.

In your career and your job, do you want to be a successful business leader? I would argue that there are five critical skills that we all need. Your ability to think critically. Analytical skills. Communication skills. Your ability to structure complex solutions in simple ways. And the ability to deliver impact. Critical thinking: what I mean by this is we have to be able to question everything, right?

We live in a world of fake news and a lot of stuff. We’re being bombarded by data, and we need to be able to think very critically. Your ability to get to the bottom of an issue is fundamental. Analytics, you know, we consume more data today in a day than a person did in their lifetime in the 15th century.

The question is, what data do I really need to make a meaningful and impactful analysis that gets me to the root cause? The third thing: once you have all that analysis, you’re going to have to persuade people that what you’re saying makes sense. That there are some critical decisions that have to be made. It’s not just about delivering nice presentations.

We then have to get all of that into some sort of solution that works for your business. We are turning into a project-based organization. It’s no longer about operations, but it’s about structuring problems, business sprints, I go from beginning to end very, very quickly. You can get stuff done and you can bring value bringing order into chaos.

And last but not least, delivery. You know, long gone are the days when a consultant could just simply write a PowerPoint present it to the board of directors and I’m out of here. That’s a thing of the past. Your ability to deliver that change and to deliver the impact that’s embedded in your solutions is going to be critical, and you’re going to be measured against it.

And I think consultants today are as much about implementation as anything else. And you see a lot of strategy consultancies that are developing their own implementation arms. And the delivery side is about, you know, getting stuff done. Your ability to deliver impact is directly proportional to your ability or to an organization’s ability to manage the change and change management. It tackles the challenge of implementing change systematically across the organization.

Change management has never been as critical as it is today, not only because if organizations don’t change, I don’t care how good your ideas are, they will never get implemented. The issue that we have now is we’ve got to change more quickly. We’ve got to adapt and adopt technologies that are very, very new. It’s not just adapt or die, it’s adapt quickly or die.

We’re used to changing over eons, right, as a species biologically anyway, and now we’re being asked to change not in decades or in years or in months, but in weeks and days. Individuals and organizations do not rise to the level of their goals. They drop to the level of their system. These skills are equally critical for anyone who wants to be a successful business leader.

Chances are, most people will not be consultants, but they have to master these critical consulting skills.