Consultancy Technology Outlook - #5

With A.I. producing consistently high-quality questionnaires, consultants will be able to offer tailor-made knowledge stores for their clients. For example, based on the client's strategy policy, annual report, scope bot conversations, and test-drive benchmarks, A.I. can mature from a scope bot to a store bot. Such a client store wizard can be pre-defined for specific industries. For example, there could be a store wizard for clients in Financial Services with a suite of assessments tailored for the segment. The wizard assists in further personalizing the store based on specific requirements from the client.

The store is the perfect lock-in for any client, while the production costs and implementation of such a store can be minimal. It also serves the quest for patterns. With the consultancy store as the default goto place, managers, employees, teams, and divisions will answer multiple questionnaires. That offers fertile ground for correlation and pattern recognition.

Three factors will influence the rise of subscription selling. Firstly, the production costs of automated consultancy services will quickly approach extremely affordable levels when consultancy practices collaborate and realize scale. The barriers to using consultancy will be lower and lower. Secondly, lower starting prices mean that more and more managers can decide on their own to use consultancy services; it's increasingly not a thing for the Board anymore to sign off on individual consultancy projects. Thirdly, the variety of automated consultancy services will sky-rocket. A.I. generates questionnaires on the spot to support even the tiniest of knowledge segments. All kinds of Do-It-Yourself workshops emerge. Gamification and merchandising will add even more choice.

These three factors combined could unintentionally add to a dazzling amount of small-item invoices. To counter that, consultancy firms will increasingly offer subscriptions. The Board will sign off on usages volumes with which lower managerial levels can work.