AI: Existential Threat or Opportunity for Consulting Firms?

Sep 11, 2025 | Growth

Sparked by a Wall Street Journal piece on McKinsey, we ask: Is AI an existential crisis for consulting firms or their greatest chance to reinvent strategy, talent, and client value?

Key Takeaways:

AI Forces Consulting Firms to Confront Their Value
McKinsey leaders call AI “existential,” reflecting the pressure to redefine consulting’s purpose beyond PowerPoint and junior analyst armies.

The Industry Is Stuck Between Efficiency and Innovation
Most firms are framing AI as a cost-cutting tool. Few are asking how it can create new solutions, deliver services differently, or drive client outcomes.

Traditional Models Are Breaking Down
AI is eroding the pyramid structure. With fewer entry-level roles, firms face a looming question: where will future partners and leaders come from?

Client Relationships Demand More Than Slide Decks
Executives no longer want abstract recommendations. They expect consultants to co-create, transfer knowledge, and deliver tangible value in the trenches.


Practical Takeaways for CEOs:

  • Don’t dismiss AI as hype. Treat it as both a threat and a strategic opportunity.

  • Push your teams beyond using AI for efficiency. Demand innovation in solutions and service delivery.

  • Re-examine hiring and training models. With fewer junior roles, firms must invest more heavily in developing critical thinkers.

  • Redefine your value proposition. Clients want outcomes, not just advice. Position AI as an enabler of deeper expertise and partnership.

  • Take meaningful action now. Experimentation at the edges (e.g., writing posts) isn’t enough. Pilot AI in core delivery and strategy functions.


Final Thought:
AI won’t just reshape how consulting is delivered—it will redefine who thrives. Firms that act boldly, rethink their models, and anchor AI in value creation will lead. Those who cling to efficiency alone risk irrelevance.

 

Chapters

00:00 AI’s Impact on Consulting: An Overview
04:52 The Existential Threat of AI
10:50 Navigating AI in Large Firms
15:24 The Shift from Efficiency to Innovation
25:49 Rethinking Value and Purpose in Consulting

 

Jason Mlicki (00:01.829)
So Jeff, I just sent you a very interesting article that I read in the journal on your favorite firm, McKinsey.

Jeff McKay (00:11.148)
Mmm

Jason Mlicki (00:12.921)
I know you love those guys. So I’m just going to read the headline here for people if they haven’t seen it, because I think the headline is it’s borderline clickbait, but it pulls you in. AI is coming for the consultants. Inside McKinsey, quote, this is existential. And it goes on to talk about how AI is affecting the consulting industry using mainly McKinsey as sort of like a case study, I guess, or a

microcosm of what’s going on. So that’s what I want to talk about today. Hopefully you had time to read the article or it’s going to be a pretty short conversation.

Jeff McKay (00:53.326)
Well, maybe instead of talking about McKinsey, we can talk about clickbait, how to write a good clickbait headline.

Jason Mlicki (00:54.317)
You

Jason Mlicki (01:03.567)
I love a good clickbait conversation. You know what I find interesting about clickbait, by the way, this is super random, but have you ever noticed that if you’re in the Wall Street Journal app, then there’s an article with a headline on it. The headline’s usually pretty straightforward. It kind of tells you what you’re gonna read. If you find that same article in the Apple News app, if you’re not a paid subscriber, which I’m not, and all of a sudden the headline is like salient and all clickbaiting. It’s a totally different headline, but it’s the same article.

And it’s trying to really draw you in and trying to get you to subscribe. And sometimes the articles that show up in Apple News, I can’t even find in the journal app. It’s almost like they’re just throwing fishing lines out there to try to catch people and draw them in. They’re not even publishing them in the journal itself.

Jeff McKay (01:42.648)
So it’s the same Wall Street Journal article. It’s just that the headline that’s placed on top of the article is different in Apple News.

Jason Mlicki (01:46.842)
Yep.

Jason Mlicki (01:53.115)
Yep. It’s, and they, and they do it. It’s a way click bait to your headline. It’s one that definitely makes you want to click. Whereas the one in the app, you’re already a subscriber, right? I’m already a paid subscriber. It’s way more tame. It’s way more explaining what’s really happening. Right. Um, I don’t know if you ever noticed too, in the journal app, you know, sometimes you open it and the headline will change real time. So you open it the headline will be one thing, and then it’ll just automatically change to something else. Like they’ve changed their mind.

which is kind of odd, but anyway.

Jeff McKay (02:25.762)
You know, we should do an episode on that and how firms manipulate us and experiment with the headlines and what that means to us as consumers and what the possibilities are as providers. Although I think…

Jason Mlicki (02:46.991)
Well, my two cents on this has always been that if you’re getting all your news from Apple News or Facebook or any algorithm, that you need to know that all the headlines are fully to drag you into the, you know, without any context of what’s actually in the news. So as long as you know that, you know, got to prepare yourself, protect yourself from that.

And I don’t know, my experience is your whole relationship with the news changes when you’re a paid subscriber to something. anyway, we’re back on task here. So AI is coming for the consultants. So I wanted just to summarize the article real fast. I I’m going to pull out a couple of things that I either found interesting or kind of hilarious.

Jeff McKay (03:23.884)
That’s for sure.

Jason Mlicki (03:40.229)
You know, the article is obviously about how AI is changing the consulting industry. They do have, obviously they interviewed the global managing partner of McKinsey, Bob Sternfeld. I don’t know if I’m saying his name correctly. They also interviewed a senior partner named Kate Smage. I don’t know if I’m saying that right. CEO of Oliver Weinman gets a quote. They’re just sort of talking a little bit about what’s going on at McKinsey. talked about that there’s been a reduction in the workforce. So in the last two years that

workforce is reduced by about 10%. So from 45,000 people to 40,000 people. Simultaneously, they’re rolling out a whole bunch of AI agents. So they’ve got now 12,000 AI agents, they say in the article. And their goal is to eventually have an agent for every employee. And not real clear what those agents do. They talked about them doing some basic tasks, building PowerPoint decks, taking notes, which obviously would just be like a Firefly’s app, summing up interviews, that kind of a thing.

They did say they had one that helps write in a classic McKinsey tone of voice. And they gave some, some context on that. but one of the things was interesting is, that Sternfeld does say he’s like, it’s a, it’s a topic of conversation at every single board meeting. and that they definitely, they, they, they use the word. mean, the McKinsey folks use the words existential. It wasn’t, that wasn’t a clickbait. I mean, that was stuff that McKinsey partners said is that we do see this as existential.

The senior partner said, but she feels that it’s existential good, whatever that means, that it’s maybe forcing change that was needed, I guess, and forcing them to kind of think a little more introspectively about their business and the value they create. So that’s sort of a summary of the article. That’s what I wanted to talk about today is kind of like, is this an existential crisis? And, and, and what have we learned, I guess, in the last maybe

six-ish months as 2025 is played out and also kind of reflecting since the event you held on AI in Chicago back in, I think, the spring. So.

Jeff McKay (05:53.89)
You know, existential is always, it seems like in modern parlance, coupled with threat. Seldom is it ever coupled with opportunity. So it’s kind of positive to hear that. You know, I think as a leader, you need to say those things. I think the opportunity comes from the threat.

You can engage it or not. And I really think that was the essence of the article is how are you going to engage what’s happening? but I think it’s becoming clear that there are some things that are solidifying around AI. Some of the hype I think is beginning to slow a little or, or maybe be digested, which I think is good.

I think there’s still a lot of things in flux because this is, this is a pig in a Python in terms of digesting and understanding what the ramifications are.

Jason Mlicki (07:00.187)
Ha

That’s a colloquialism I’ve never heard before. I have never heard that one. Pick it up Python.

Jeff McKay (07:07.029)
You’ve never heard of a pig in a python?

man, that’s a great one. Yeah, picking a Python, look it up.

Jason Mlicki (07:14.223)
Someone you use frequently?

I can look it up. I just never heard you say that in 220 ish episodes. Never heard you picking a python for lipstick on a pig.

Jeff McKay (07:26.827)
I’m worried about this Classico Ohio State education you received.

Jason Mlicki (07:31.981)
I know, it’s because we don’t waste our time on colloquialisms. Those are baked into our culture.

Jeff McKay (07:38.581)
So have you heard of the colloquial wisdom lipstick on a pig?

Jason Mlicki (07:45.307)
I didn’t come up with that one. I just picked that one up from our Vice President wannabe back in the day, Sarah Palin.

Jeff McKay (07:56.48)
All right, well, we’ll have to do an episode on colloquialisms, our favorites, because that would be a lot of fun. But back to the topic at hand.

Jason Mlicki (07:56.985)
Well, anyway.

Jason Mlicki (08:06.565)
Okay.

Jeff McKay (08:09.003)
So let’s talk a little bit about what we see solidifying.

Jason Mlicki (08:16.363)
Yeah, yeah, that was good. What did it kind of hear? You started that, so I wanted to hear what your initial thoughts were on that. Because you said you have seen maybe the AI hype cycle kind of come down a little bit. I was curious, what were the indicators of that for you?

Jeff McKay (08:33.547)
Yeah, my sense is people are still worried. They’re still worried. But they’re starting to interact with it a lot more. And they’re seeing the positive they can do, but they’re also beginning to see the limitations, right? What the hallucinations look like, what the final product.

gets you to or does not get you to. So I think there’s just practical engagement with the technology itself from an individual basis. I think you’re beginning to really start to see the lines draw about how this Python digests this pig.

is one, we as individuals, how do we use it? Two, how do we as a function use it? And then third, which I think is the long-term opportunity, and I say long-term in kind of air quotes, I don’t know what the runway is on this, is how do you pull it together across an organization?

I think the individual use and the functional use is relatively straightforward and becoming clearer. But how do you access all that data and build value if you’re an existing organization, kind of transform yourself. And we touched on.

Jason Mlicki (10:04.687)
Thank

Jason Mlicki (10:15.749)
To your point, if I think about a lot of the firms that I either work with or talk with, particularly I’m talking about the bigger firms right now, only because in a smaller firm, it’s a little bit easier to say, we’re gonna deploy this technology and here’s how we’re gonna use it as a group, right? If you’ve got 30, 50 people, let’s Talking about the global firms, the thousand person plus firms. And what I’ve…

Probably consistently heard from the marketing leaders that I know in those firms is something that sounds like this. They’ll say, we’ve deployed some AI technology. Sometimes they’re given one very basic off the shelf tool that is supposed to be used by everybody in the organization to accomplish any possible task. And they’re kind of scratching their heads saying, I don’t see how that could possibly be effective because there are just like there are

specialties in any large corporation, there are specialty tools to support them. And then a lot of times I’m also hearing maybe something’s been deployed, but, they’re excited about it, but there hasn’t been really very much traction because it’s sort of just dropped into the corporate environment as if they just dropped in a, you know, slack tool to chat with and they haven’t really kind of engaged people in any learning cycle.

to figure out how to use it together to accomplish what needs to be done for the organization. So I think that, I don’t know where that falls. I don’t know if that falls into what’s in flux, but to your point, in the larger firms that I interact with or talk with, there definitely is still…

Jason Mlicki (12:08.891)
not a organizational cohesive vision for how AI is going to advance the firm forward. And there’s not a consistent clear and coherent strategy on what AI tools are going to be used for what tasks. I would say that is still very much in flux in most of the firms that I interact with or talk with. There’s still experimentation at the individual level and maybe at the team level, but it hasn’t become coherent.

Jeff McKay (12:45.282)
So.

I see that exact same thing. My sense is getting arms around this and you’re seeing some of this and I’ve heard these in conversations that I’ve had as well. There’s this simple bifurcation. We’re looking at how do we use it internally? How do we use it externally? And I guess that’s a good way of looking at it.

but I, I think that, you know, thinking of it in terms of the IC triad or the commercial engine is probably a more productive way of, of looking at how it, how it breaks down. you know, how does it impact how we deliver, which would be how most firms are thinking about it externally.

And how do we make people more productive, i.e. more utilization, which is delivery. But I don’t think they’ve fully thought through the sales and marketing or the market understanding or how does this deepen or expand our expertise, right? Our thought leadership and our understanding of the market.

And how does it help us really engage in a meaningful way with our ideal client? Some of that is happening on a functional basis, but it’s, it’s not integrated because there are these kinds of existential threats that are immediate right now. Like from a marketing perspective, for example, inbound is dead.

Jason Mlicki (14:40.635)
It’s on life support, you know. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a big deal.

Jeff McKay (14:40.822)
or if not dead, it’s dying. That one, in a zero click world, how does marketing go out and build brand preference for the firm? That’s a question that’s not answered yet.

Jason Mlicki (14:59.675)
And I still see a lot of marketers that are not aware that this is happening, that are still talking about and thinking about SEO as if it’s something that’s of merit and value. now I don’t want to over paint a picture. I used an analogy before this call, but there’s a interview that.

Scott Galloway always talks about, and he talks about this time when he was investing in Yellow Pages companies, when the internet was growing. And he’s like, you can make a ton of money on the downside. As these things were contracting, they’re still highly profitable businesses. And I don’t want to claim that Google’s gone because it’s far from gone. And traditional search is far from gone. But I would argue that in the world of thought leadership and getting thought leadership, getting your thinking to be

demonstrated and clients to be aware of it and consume it, understand it, it’s really past the point of jumping the shark, right? It’s really down the hill. So I think it’s more problematic. I think that particular issue is definitely more problematic for professional services firms than it is say for your local pool installer who was always the showcase of the content marketing playbook 15 years ago, right?

But it affects them too. So anyway, but moving off that, I do think that there’s.

In terms of what’s in flux, there are definitely new, to your point about the IC triad, there are definitely new firms showing up that are coming at this landscape as AI native, the same way there were cloud native firms, organizations that are cloud native that showed up, you know, after the cloud was formed.

Jason Mlicki (16:59.259)
You know, in fact, did years ago, we did some work with Google through the National Center for the Middle Market. And what was fascinating about that work was there was a stark difference between an organization that was born in the cloud and an organization that was migrating to the cloud in terms of how they thought about how they could use the cloud to accomplish business tasks. It’s going to be the same thing here. There is very clearly new firms that are being born right now in an AI era that are coming at

clients problems in a very different way. So there are very much, and this is still in the influx category, there is a lot of change happening in the delivery side of the equation here as new firms are showing up and using AI to accomplish tasks that traditional firms aren’t seeing as a viable.

Jeff McKay (17:30.382)
Yeah.

Jason Mlicki (17:52.815)
That’s 100 % influx, I think. And it probably always will be influx because there’s always new entrants coming at you from different places. And that’s just, that’s the nature of competition. That’s how capitalism works, right?

one thing that I’ve seen solidified, and I think it’s a bad thing by the way, I shouldn’t, maybe, maybe I’m being too extreme. I see a lot, almost everybody that I interact with recognizes that AI is here to stay and it’s a value, but the conversations always go to the efficiency side. Like how do we use AI to be more efficient? How do we use it to reduce costs? How do we use it for, it’s always on the cost reduction side of the equation.

It’s never on the innovation side. It’s never on the new product service side. It’s like, seems like AI is starting to solidify around an efficiency tool, not as a tool like you said, for finding new ways to connect with our ideal client, finding new innovative ways to solve client problems, you know, in a lot of organizations. And I don’t think that’s a good thing. I think that’s a really bad thing as a matter of fact.

framing this technology.

Jeff McKay (19:10.69)
Well, you’ll find, maybe I’ll throw out a hypothesis here. That is the exact same path that the cloud took. When I worked with firms and we were working on segmentation and identifying markets to focus on and ideal clients within that, there were three…

Jason Mlicki (19:22.554)
Okay.

Jeff McKay (19:37.389)
you know, major segmentations when it came to technology and its application. And the first one in the least dynamic and call them the laggards, if you will, were those that focused on cost cutting and efficiency. Then the next phase was those that focused on effectiveness in ways to grow.

And then the third one was pure innovation. And that is what you just described, the AI natives, right? It’s just the way they think. We can innovate, we can meet this need in a completely different way.

Whereas, you know, the growth and the efficiency people, you know, are thinking about their current models and how they modify them. And rightly so. I mean, you have that legacy cost that goes with that. But it’s and it’s not that any one of those categories is wrong. And they overlap. But I think the thing that keeps important that I keep in mind from a strategic perspective is

If you have to move through those, you want to move through those as quickly as your organization is capable. Because ultimately, the AI natives are those that think differently are the ones that are going to succeed.

Jason Mlicki (21:07.749)
So what you just struck in my head was you remember that old business school story that was always panning around? was the…

in the advent of the car, the companies that made horse-drawn carriages failed because they thought that they defined themselves as making as makers of horse-drawn carriages. But if they were able to define themselves as providers of transportation, they might have been able to realize that their definition of their business was wrong, right?

And I’m getting that all wrong, but it’s kind of that old line is like, you know, what does my customer want? Well, they wanted a faster horse. I think there was something on some line. can’t remember exactly how it worked, but yeah, I mean, I can’t remember exactly how it was worded, but it was always used. Like it always came up all the time and it was just, it was always about, you know, how are you defining your business? Um, and, and to your point, it seems like that’s what’s happening for a lot of firms. there.

Jeff McKay (21:54.351)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, yeah. You got it 99 % of the way there.

Jason Mlicki (22:16.448)
is that the way they framed and thought about their business is not as relevant as it was. And they maybe don’t have a complete understanding of the value that they truly provide that you always talk about. What is the value that you really provide? And to your point about utilization, think about like, it’s like, if you’re looking at AI and you’re saying to yourself, AI can make us a lot more efficient. We can drive utilization. I think you’re thinking about it all wrong.

I think you’re having the entirely wrong conversation. The conversation needs to be about, my gosh, we’ve been fixating on utilization and buildability forever. And holy cow, we need to focus on outcomes better. And how do we price to value? Like, know, light bulb. You know, that actually showed up a little bit in that journal article.

Jeff McKay (23:14.348)
Yeah, there was a quote in there from Oliver Wyman that I thought was, I don’t know if I would call it insightful or a little late to the game. But talk. I was trying to be kind.

Jason Mlicki (23:14.489)
and I’ll

Jason Mlicki (23:28.101)
was exceptionally like the game.

Well, I’ll read it because he says the age, I’m just going to read the quote. He says, he says the age of arrogance of the management consultant is over now. Companies don’t want to suit with a PowerPoint. They want someone who was willing to get in the trenches and help them align with their team and co-create with their team. And the reason I say that’s late to the game is, mean, my gosh, smaller firms have been operating this way for at least 15 years, right? I mean, I can’t tell you how.

many small firms we’ve dealt with in the last 15 years who one of their great values was knowledge transfer. know, like that was what they were doing was like, we’re going to come in and we’re not just going to tell you what to do. We’re going to help you do it. And then we’re going to teach you how to do it on your own. And it’s like, he’s just now seeing that like, wow. But they’re great firm, they’re great firm. And they might have taken them out of context. And I even kind of mashed the quote together because the quote was in two parts and I put it together. So, but I, yeah.

I thought it was late to the game.

Jeff McKay (24:31.348)
If you are thinking that way though, it’s so fundamentally wrong because it’s definitely not client centric and it’s definitely not value add. And I have sat in those meetings because when I work with clients, oftentimes those strategy firms are also in there.

And because of my role, I get to sit in all the meetings where they’re sharing their insights. And it’s the same every time it’s, you know, five or six junior people sitting at the end of the table, waiting to be asked a clarifying question and a partner to going through a deck that essentially says, sell more of what you have to your existing clients.

and penetrate the middle market. It’s the exact same thing, but it’s packaged nicely into a PowerPoint. And it just makes me laugh. It makes me laugh. And that’s been the model for a long time. And I can’t even imagine presenting something like that to a client, but they get paid big bucks to do that. So

it’s, it’s good. They’re waking up. It’s, it’s good. They’re waking up, but I can’t believe that would take them this long to wake up. So surely there’s some media relations work going on here that they’re scurrying, you know, like the duck on the water that doesn’t look like it’s frantic, but it’s legs, it’s little, feet are going crazy.

What was it two, three years ago? It was either BCG or Bain came out with a study that looked at the impact of AI on various industries. And there was, there was easily a 40 % cut coming to these industries of law and accounting. And

Jason Mlicki (26:45.595)
Well, professional services with a broad umbrella, I think they used in that study. And so they recognize that. So I’m sure they had to look at that and be introspective in the moment and say, OK, this is us too. I we’re not immune to this. And I don’t think it’s like, I don’t want to claim that. I don’t want to act like this is a full on criticism of these large firms. think it’s.

It’s definitely a recognition that just like anything you think about, I’ll go off the cuff here for a second. For years, we did business with a manufacturer of pumps. So industrial grade pumps here in Ohio. This was before our focus on professional services. So this was a long time ago. And what was fascinating was, I don’t remember the dates on this, but there was a point in time. So these are the leading industrial manufacturer of pumps, most well respected in the world.

And it was like 30 years ago, they had a manufacturing plant with 600 people in it. And then now they were producing, I don’t know how much more output, twice as much output and they had 60 people because so much of an automate. So I think on some level, that’s what is probably going on in these large firms is that the scale is there because of…

you know, the volume of activity that’s needed to be done to derive the insight, to provide the recommendations and the strategy and the implementation. And if a lot of that stuff does get automated, yeah, there is going to be a change in the, the scale and makeup of that workforce. And that’s probably just reality. Now, smaller firms probably don’t face that same experience because they probably never had that much people doing those types of tasks that would be automated.

so there’s probably some of that going on. That’s, that’s, that’s so to your point of what’s, what’s solidified, I would argue that it’s probably solidified that at least in the short term, there’s probably going to be fewer people needed in certain roles. what’s still in flux is which roles are they and how many people, know? and then what’s also in flux is what are the, what are the opportunities on the other side? Because, you know,

Jason Mlicki (29:03.501)
My gut says that there will be more opportunity on the other side of all of this. It’s just not clear yet what that opportunity looks like for firms. And that’s the future that they need to write. That’s the future that every firm I think needs to write right now is what is our role in all this and how do we fit and how do we play and what value do we create and why does it matter? Why do we matter? think most firms have to answer that question.

if they’re facing this type of disruption.

Jeff McKay (29:37.603)
I would argue that they need to ask that question even without the potential destruction because it grounds you in a meaningful way. And not to say that these firms haven’t asked that question, they’ve gotten to a different answer. you know, perhaps what this means to firms is you have this golden opportunity.

Jason Mlicki (29:42.287)
Yeah, fair point.

Jason Mlicki (29:47.407)
Yeah.

Jeff McKay (30:01.217)
like an individual does in their life, to re-examine where have you been, where are you, and where do you ultimately want to go as a human being. You have this potential, you’re here for a reason, what’s it going to be? And I think that’s a question that we need to ask ourselves regularly as individuals and as practices and as firms and as leaders.

about what is my purpose here and what value am I bringing to my team, to the firm, to my clients, and I would argue the world.

But I think firms, existential threat or the existential opportunity right now is figuring out what it means to me and to my firm because we know people are going to lose jobs, right? And jobs are going to be reinvented.

and we have to sustain the life of the firm, how do we do that? Because there’s going to be a lot less, a lot fewer junior people. Well, if you have fewer junior people, how are you going to develop senior people? I still don’t know how that one’s going to be answered because AI is not going to teach them critical thinking skills. That’s for sure.

Or I don’t see how it is going to do it. Maybe I’m missing it, but to me, it seems like it sucks much of the critical thinking out of one’s brain. If it’s not.

Jason Mlicki (31:49.915)
Thank you.

Jeff McKay (31:57.163)
or maybe I’m mixing this up. If you don’t have it, critical thinking skills, AI is not gonna teach you that. If you have critical thinking skills, AI could erode it. If you have critical thinking skills, AI could augment it. And I think that is the opportunity in a nutshell. Now go and apply that.

on an individual basis, on a functional basis, and a firm-wide basis.

Jason Mlicki (32:28.187)
Yeah, a couple of things come to mind and we should probably wrap up here. But one thing that comes to mind is I wonder if firms need to rethink their hiring pools. For the longest time, firms just went to the most prestigious institutions and hired the best people they could get. That was the model. We’re to go to Harvard, Wharton, Stanford. We’ll get the best guys we can get. When we can get, that’s the game. And to your point,

You might need the best critical thinker, the most innovative, the most creative, and they might be at Stanford. They might not. I might be hanging out at Denison where I went to school. And so you might have to cast a different net to find different types of people. Because to your point, it’s more about different sets of skills. And the second thing that comes to mind, I don’t know that this is an answer to your question of where does tomorrow’s senior leaders come from. But my gut says that the junior, like this idea of the pyramid becoming a diamond that we talked about at your session.

I just don’t see that happening because to your point, some level you need, if you’re a partner, you need other partners to come behind you. So in some way you need a transition. You need people behind you. So I just don’t see that becoming a diamond because otherwise the firm can’t survive. But what does change is all of sudden you have less opportunities. The old up and out model, right? The old up and out model was, you you bring in 10 junior people and maybe one of them survives.

But if you’re only bringing in three junior people, you have to invest more in training and developing those junior people so that you have a higher likelihood of getting the one you need. And so I do think that the hiring, training, learning, growth mechanisms inside firms probably have to go through some meaningful change for that to work. So.

And I’m not an expert on that. That’s just stuff that comes to mind based on conversations I’ve had recently with people that just jumped out to me that that was something that would be a thing. In fact, I was talking with a friend of mine who has a business development training firm. And that’s where that came to me. I was suddenly like, well, if you’re developing people to do business development, you probably have to invest more now because you have to make sure that your bets win if you have less people. You know, so, um,

Jason Mlicki (34:48.505)
What else should be, what’s our, I guess our last comment on this before we wrap. What else should we be thinking about? If anything.

Jason Mlicki (34:59.535)
What’s your, maybe we should do this. What’s your take? Is AI an existential threat?

Jeff McKay (35:05.93)
Yes. And it’s an existential opportunity. And in my mind, the mantra of action leads to learning is probably the most relevant right now is you can’t be sitting around, go do something, and learn and then respond to that learning.

because things are beginning to solidify. We talked about that in our Accenture episode about the reinvention of consulting services. Earlier, before we got on, you talked about the private equity money moving into accounting and law firms. And that’s a priority right now for them. That’s their focus.

Jason Mlicki (36:00.943)
and AE firms, by the way.

Jeff McKay (36:02.464)
right? What’s the actions you could be taking around those things right now? But I think if you’re sitting around waiting for an answer to come to you and many firms probably think, well, we’re not, we’re not doing that. We are in action. Well, are you in action enough? Because I think there could always be more action.

Jason Mlicki (36:26.715)
And I would also ask, ask yourself the question, are we in action on the edges? Are we experimenting with AI to write social posts? That’s action, but it’s not like, that’s like little action at best, right? know, big action would be, are we looking at how we’re going to use AI to deliver services differently? Are we looking at how we’re going to use AI to create more value that we couldn’t have created before?

Jeff McKay (36:32.586)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Mlicki (36:54.171)
those types of things. think, you know, there’s different levels of action that are probably important here. all right, man. Well, this was fun. Thank you.

Jeff McKay (37:10.136)
All right, so the lesson for the day is don’t be taken in by AI clickbait.

Jason Mlicki (37:17.914)
you

Jason Mlicki (37:21.883)
That’s a good lesson for always, for always and all time. All right, see you.

Jeff McKay (37:23.854)
Yes.

See you buddy.

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