What actually justifies three thousand pounds a day for a strategy consultant?
Methodology, a structured way of thinking through complexity. Pattern recognition from having sat inside dozens of other organisations facing similar problems. Skilfully interviewing you to draw out what you actually think. A genuine understanding of your business, your industry, your priorities, built up over time.
I have huge respect for that model. I’ve worked alongside consultants of that calibre for thirty years.
What has changed
Here’s what’s changed. AI can now do every one of those things, if it’s set up properly.
Feed it real methodology instead of generic prompts. Let it draw on patterns across industries the way an experienced consultant would. Have it interview you properly before it answers, forcing out what you actually know versus what you’re assuming. Give it deep, ongoing context on your business, your board, your priorities this quarter, not a one-off brief.
I did exactly this with a CEO this weekend, and by the end, the same questions were producing his answers, not generic ones.
Do that, and it stops behaving like a search engine and starts behaving like a strategy consultant who’s read everything, sat in every relevant room, and never forgets any of it.
It won’t manage the politics in the room, and it won’t lend a boardroom the credibility of a trusted logo on the slide. But the thinking and the output, most of what you’re actually paying for, that’s now yours.
This is the age of the AI strategy consultant. Your own pocket consultant, on call day and night. The adviser you turn to on your next move against the wider strategy, one moment. The one drafting your all-hands presentation on the strategy update, the next.
I work with a select number of CEOs each quarter to build this properly, in person, wherever suits them.
So don’t ask whether you use AI. Ask whether you’ve built an executive strategy framework, or you’re still just asking it questions.
If you would like to build an executive strategy framework of your own, I would be glad to hear from you. You can read more about our services or get in touch.
This article was first shared as a post on LinkedIn.