To AI Productisation and Beyond: The Rise of Platform-Powered Consulting
Nov 13, 2025
By Robert Streeter, CEO, TheAX.ai
Let’s pick up where we left off in my last blog.
In my previous article, I explored AI-Powered Productisation - the process of turning your firm’s intellectual property into scalable, intelligent systems that deliver measurable outcomes. That shift marked the end of consulting as a purely human-powered craft and the start of a new, system-powered model of growth.
But whilst AI-powered Productisation is already a reality that TheAX is delivering, this isn’t the finish line. It’s the bridge to what comes next.
The real transformation begins when those intelligent products start to connect - linking data, workflows, and client systems so that knowledge flows seamlessly across the firm and becomes exponentially more valuable.
The Evolution Continues
It is, of course, impossible to predict the future - especially when AI is driving so much of that change and we don’t yet know its full impact. But what we can do, with a fair degree of certainty, is draw logical conclusions based on what we see today and what history tells us. That gives us a strong sense of where the consultancy market is heading - particularly in the next two years.
In the words of Maya Angelou, “You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.”
So, let’s look back first - to understand where consultancy has come from.
Every generation of consulting has been shaped by technology:
The Expert Era (1950s–70s): Consulting was bespoke, dependent on individual expertise.
The Method Era (1980s–90s): Frameworks and playbooks brought repeatability and efficiency.
The Digital Era (2000s): Technology tools enhanced delivery, but people still did the heavy lifting.
The Productised Era (2010s): Firms packaged services into structured offers — but growth still depended on headcount.
The AI-Powered Era (2020s): Expertise is being codified and automated, transforming knowledge into living, data-driven systems.
AI hasn’t disrupted this journey - it’s accelerated it.
Moore’s Law described the exponential rise of computing power - which has fuelled the accelerating pace of technology, culminating in today’s GenAI revolution. We’re witnessing an exponential rise in how fast knowledge can be captured, systemised, and deployed.
What once took decades now happens in months, months can now take hours.
We can also learn from other industries like SaaS. Software was once delivered as high-value, episodic projects installed on-premise. Then, with the rise of the internet and cloud technologies, it evolved into a continuous service - subscription-based, data-driven, and infinitely scalable.
The same shift is now happening in consulting. AI is the catalyst moving the industry from expertise and frameworks to systems, products, and now - platforms.
Where We Are Now: AI-Powered Productisation
Today, forward-thinking consultancies are embedding AI into their delivery models. They are combining product thinking, technology, and human expertise to evolve in line with changing client expectations.
They’re creating maturity models, automated diagnostics, dashboards, and workflow automation that make their expertise consistent, measurable, and scalable.
That’s a huge leap forward — the difference between delivering expertise and deploying it through systems.
But as firms build more productised IP, a new challenge emerges: integration.
When knowledge no longer lives in people’s heads or PowerPoint slides but across multiple tools, products, and teams, its full value isn’t realised until it’s connected.
That’s where the next evolution begins - and with AI accelerating market change, that next phase isn’t years away. It’s already emerging, and TheAX will make it a reality by 2026.
The Next Phase: Platformisation
Every industry that moves from bespoke to productised eventually becomes platformised.
Think of what happened in software: custom code became SaaS, and SaaS evolved into connected ecosystems. In consulting, we’re seeing the same evolution - following the path from projects to products to platforms.
Platforms don’t just automate delivery; they create an intelligent infrastructure for growth. They connect data, workflows, and insights across every stage of the consulting lifecycle - from marketing and proposals to delivery, outcomes, and renewal.
In the process, consulting becomes something new:
Something we at TheAX call Consultancy-as-a-Service (CaaS) - a continuously delivered, measurable, and recurring value experience for clients. Ultimately, this will open the door to subscription-based consulting.
Why the Shift to Platforms Is Inevitable
Three forces make this the logical next step:
Data Wants to Connect.
Each productised assessment, tool, and framework creates valuable performance data. When unified, that data becomes an engine for foresight and value creation — an asset that compounds.Clients Want Continuity.
They don’t want to buy a project; they want a system - and expert people - that helps them improve continuously, measure progress, and see outcomes evolve in real time.Markets Reward Recurring Value.
Like SaaS, consultancies with subscription-based models and data-driven delivery achieve higher valuations and stronger client retention. As soon as technology makes it possible, firms will therefore move in that direction.
The result? A consultancy that no longer sells time or deliverables - it runs systems of value.
Beyond a Service: A System for Value
Every productised consultancy combines three forces:
Human Expertise – interpretation, trust, and judgement.
AI – speed, learning, and personalisation.
Platforms – structure, data, and automation.
Together, they form what we at TheAX call the Whole Product System — a complete ecosystem for consistent, intelligent, outcome-led delivery. It’s beyond a service; it’s a system that learns and scales with every client.
The Road Ahead: From Products to Platforms to Ecosystems
Looking at how markets evolve, and drawing on frameworks like Wardley Maps, we can outline the likely trajectory of consulting’s next five years:
AI-Powered Productisation (Now–2026):
Firms codify and automate their IP, building consistent products and data-led offers.Platform Integration (2026–2028):
Those products connect into unified delivery systems - consultancy platforms that manage clients, outcomes, and value streams end-to-end.CaaS Standardisation (2028–2030):
Subscription-based consulting becomes mainstream. Clients subscribe to insight and improvement rather than one-off projects.Ecosystem Intelligence (Beyond 2030):
Platforms interconnect across industries. Data sharing, benchmarks, and AI-driven foresight create self-optimising networks of consulting capability.
As history shows, every market (from manufacturing to media) eventually consolidates into platforms and ecosystems. The logical and inevitable conclusion is that consulting will too.
The Beginning of Something Bigger
CaaS isn’t just a new term. It’s the integrated design model for how the next generation of consultancies will operate - a complete rethinking of how expertise is structured, delivered, and monetised.
For decades, consulting has been a series of projects. AI Productisation changed that — turning knowledge into intelligent, repeatable systems.
Now, Consultancy-as-a-Service will go further: transforming those systems into platforms of continuous value, where human expertise, automation, and data intelligence operate as one.
This isn’t an incremental change - it’s a new operating logic for the entire industry.
It challenges every consultancy to think differently about what they build, how they deliver, and how clients experience value.
At TheAX, we’re not theorising this future, we’re engineering it, and we invite readers to follow our upcoming deep-dive series on CaaS and the platform-powered consultancy model we’re engineering. Our platform already enables firms to deliver AI-Productisation today - capturing IP, automating workflows, and embedding intelligence into delivery - helping clients achieve transformation with AI in less than 30 days.
And this is only the start.
In the next articles, we’ll dive deeper into what Consultancy-as-a-Service (CaaS) really looks like in practice - the architecture, systems, and commercial models that will define the consultancies of the next decade.
Because this time, the shift isn’t about adding tools. It’s about building a new system of value - one where consulting finally scales like software, learns like AI, and delivers impact continuously.
If this resonates with you, follow TheAX on LinkedIn as we continue to explore — and build - the future of Consultancy-as-a-Service.
How ready is your consultancy for AI Productisation?
If you’re curious to find out, take our AX Axcelerate Assessment - it’ll show you where you are today, what’s holding you back, and where your biggest opportunities lie.
It’s the first step towards building the consultancy you’ll need for the decade ahead.
