By Robert, CEO of TheAX

The future of consulting is going to be a hybrid of people plus software - like, a lot of software. And consulting companies that can’t do that are going to fall away.”
— Mohamed Ali, Head of IBM Consulting

He’s right.

But becoming a software company is not the future of consulting.

The future of consulting is building systems that allow expertise, outcomes, and accountability to persist - long after a project team has left.

Let me explain the difference, and why it matters to every consultancy firm.

Introduction

For most of my career in both Professional Services and Consulting - on both sides of the fence, consultancy and client-side — value has been created through projects. Well-defined scopes, expert teams, polished deliverables, and a clear end date. That model has worked. For a long time.

But over the last two years, something fundamental has changed — not just because of AI, but because of what AI has exposed as the pace of change continues to accelerate.

Clients are no longer struggling to access information or analysis - they have that now instantly and in abundance. What they are struggling with is turning insight into targeted, sustained results, and proving that those results justify continued investment.

This is the context in which I founded TheAX. And it is why I believe we are now entering a new era for consultancy – one I am calling Consultancy as a Service (CaaS). 

That is of course a label for convenience, but the model behind it that comes next is the important thing.  This is what I dive into and explore in this article.

Productisation got us this far - What clients want will decide what comes next

Over the last decade, consultancies have increasingly embraced Productisation: standardised offerings, repeatable methodologies, accelerators, playbooks - all designed to improve consistency, scalability, and margin.

Historically, Productisation was hard work. Building maturity models, diagnostics, and standardised delivery assets required teams of people and months of effort.

In 2022 the launch of ChatGPT’s LLM chatbot dramatically changed that equation with new capabilities that have allowed what is possible in consultancy to evolve – rapidly.

Fast forward and Platforms like TheAX can now allow consultancy knowledge to be codified and productised in hours rather than months. Maturity models, diagnostics, outcome frameworks, delivery logic, and insight generation can all be productised at a fraction of the time and historical cost for consultancies.

This is powerful but it is incomplete. It is a first step for consultancy, not the end goal.

AI-powered Productisation optimises how engagements are delivered – which is a huge step. But it does not, on its own, solve the harder problem clients now care about most: how value persists after delivery ends and the consultancy team disappears.  Clients now care most about the measurable outcomes and ROI a consultancy engagement delivers — and whether it creates genuine step-change for their business.

What Clients Actually Want Today

Across sectors and geographies, the signal from clients is remarkably consistent.

They want:

• Clarity over complexity - fewer options, better decisions

• Outcome accountability - a direct line from effort to measurable impact

• Targeted capability improvement - real change in how work gets done

• Continuous insight - relevance as conditions evolve (and they now evolve faster than ever)

• Assurance and governance - confidence in AI-augmented decisions

• Compounding value - progress that builds, not resets

Clients are not rejecting consulting. They are rejecting models that cannot keep pace with accelerated change or rigorously justify value.

Let’s be clear: AI did not create this problem. It simply made it impossible to ignore.

Why Traditional Consulting Now Falls Short

Traditional consulting was built for a slower world.

It is still largely defined by:

• Time-bound projects

• Success measured by deliverables against an original scope (even when that scope is no longer relevant by the end)

• Expertise concentrated in individuals

• Assumed, but rarely measured, capability transfer

• A reset of context at the start of every engagement

This model is not failing because consultants are less capable. It is failing because the structure no longer matches client reality.

Static deliverables decay quickly. Outcome ownership ends at project close. Capability uplift is incidental rather than designed. Evidence of ROI weakens once the team leaves. Renewals depend on selling again, not on proof.

This structural issue is now being acknowledged openly by the largest firms in our industry.

This structural issue is now being acknowledged openly by leaders of the largest firms in our industry such as  - including those who argue that consulting must fundamentally rethink how people and software work together.

On this, Mohamed Ali, Head of IBM Consulting who we quoted at the beginning of this article, is absolutely right.

The traditional, people-only delivery model cannot scale, adapt, or evidence value fast enough for the world clients now operate in.

And No - ChatGPT Is Not the Answer

Where I part company with some of the emerging commentary I have seen is on what that software actually represents.

I often hear that the solution is simply “using AI better”.  Like pointing an LLM at historic consultancy projects and frameworks and expecting that to change how consultancy operates – and for clients to want to pay for it.

Tools like ChatGPT absolutely improve consultant productivity. They help people work faster and cheaper.

But they are consultant productivity tools, not consultancy solutions.

If a client can access the same tools for £20 a month, the consultancy’s problem compounds rather than resolves. Faster production of the same deliverables accelerates commoditisation.

So, let’s be clear. Clients do not pay consultancies for access to tools. They pay for judgement, context, causal insight, and accountability for outcomes. Generic AI provides information - not responsibility. Tools matter only insofar as they strengthen that core value.

In the same discussion we quoted earlier, Mohamed Ali suggested that consultancies must reinvent themselves as software companies to survive.

This is where I respectfully disagree.

Consultancies do not need to become software businesses. That path risks losing the very thing clients still value most. What consultancies must become instead is consultancies armed with software platforms that help deliver their consultancy better for clients.

From Productisation to a System of Value

This distinction matters.

Productisation improves how work is delivered, but client value still ends when the engagement ends - and the cycle of re-pitching begins again.

The next logical stage of consultancy Productisation is then connecting productised assets into a system of continuous value delivery.

In that system:

• Maturity models become ontologies of what actually drives outcomes

• Capability assessments establish persistent baselines

• Outcomes are clearly defined and owned across programmes, not projects

• AI-augmented hypotheses guide action and flexible learning loops

• Capability uplift is systematically reassessed over time

• Continuous KPI monitoring evidences progress

• Data accumulates into a durable evidence base

• The system itself learns from every engagement

Value no longer resets. It compounds.

Why This Requires Platforms — Not Just People

This level of continuity cannot be delivered through people and documents alone.

It is enabled by platforms operating at two connected layers:

• The application layer, where consultants interact and engage, and clients see progress, outcomes, learning, reviews, and evidence

• The consulting operating system, where data products, ontologies, knowledge graphs, AI orchestration, workflows, and governance are managed

The platform is not the product being sold to a client. It is the infrastructure that allows consulting expertise to operate as a continuous, accountable service.

This is what I mean by Consultancy as a Service (CaaS) - and it is exactly the gap TheAX was built to fill.

Why I Call This Consultancy as a Service

Once consulting is delivered as a system rather than a sequence of engagements, recurring revenue is no longer a commercial trick. It is a logical consequence.

Clients pay for:

• Ongoing insight and prioritisation

• Continuous capability development

• Outcome assurance and governance

• Regular reassessment, benchmarking, and course correction advice

• Evidence that value continues to be realised

This is not SaaS. It is not managed services.

It is Consultancy as a Service (CaaS), where expertise, accountability, and evidence persist over time. The platform that enables this model is what we call a CaaS OS - the operating system for continuous, outcome-led consulting.

What This Means for Consulting Firms

The implications are profound.

Margins expand as diagnosis is reused, IP compounds, and AI reduces marginal cost.
Partners gain leverage as expertise is codified, teams operate within guardrails, and senior time is spent on judgement rather than repetition.

Growth decouples from headcount. Renewal is driven by evidence, not persuasion.

A Closing Note to Consulting Partners

If you are a consulting partner reading this, the challenge ahead is not whether to adopt AI - that is already table stakes. The real question is whether your firm is building systems that allow your expertise to compound and new commercial models to be built on it, or whether it still relies on projects that reset value every time the team rolls off.

CaaS is not about abandoning consulting. It is about protecting what makes consulting valuable - by giving it a platform that allows outcomes, evidence, and trust to persist for both a consultancy and its clients.

That is the future TheAX is building towards - and a platform available to support your consultancy today.