From Billable Hours to Borrowed Brilliance: How AI Is Exposing the Flaws in the Consulting Model

Remember when BlackBerry ruled the business world?

It sold time. Emails on the go, meetings on the move, productivity in your pocket. It was the king of the keypad. But then Apple arrived—not just with a sleeker device, but with a new mindset, and a new business model. Apple didn’t just compress time. It created it. It sold an ecosystem. A platform. A new way to live and work.

One measured time. The other multiplied it.

Today, that same disruption is happening in consulting.

Traditional consulting firms still sell time. They bill by the hour, the day, the sprint. The model is simple: fill in the timesheet, bill the client. But in the age of AI, the value isn’t in time spent—it’s in results delivered.

AI doesn’t sell time. It doesn’t need to. It compresses what used to take hours into seconds. It creates minutes within the minute. And it questions the outcome.  A single hour of AI-led output can outperform a week of traditional analysis. AI doesn’t burn out, wait on meetings, or work in PowerPoint decks. It produces outcomes, instantly and at scale.

As Simon-Kucher & Partners puts it: "Consultants will need to deliver more impact in less time, which will require an unprecedented level of efficiency. AI is not just a helper; it's a force multiplier."

The old model—"I’ll do it for you"—is being replaced by a new one: "Let me show you how to do it yourself—better, faster, and cheaper—with AI."

But instead of stepping aside, many traditional firms are doing what they do best: rebranding. They’re not disrupting; they’re borrowing brilliance. They’ve gone from resisting AI to hosting AI innovation workshops. From mocking no-code to selling no-code strategy. From doubting self-service to offering AI Centers of Excellence.

Even Harvard Business Review observed: "Many consulting firms are repackaging AI into service lines that resemble traditional offerings—training, workshops, strategic assessments—without fundamentally rethinking their business model."

"Come to our workshop." "Let us show you how to use AI." "Let's spend a few billable weeks exploring your AI roadmap."

The same firms who built empires on gatekeeping knowledge are now charging you to learn tools that were designed to eliminate gatekeepers.

And they’re still figuring it out themselves.

Let’s be honest: this isn’t transformation. It’s repackaging. A new buzzword wrapped around an old billing model. A shinier version of the same thing.

At Data Tiles, we believe in building something different.

When we created Latttice, we weren’t building another tool. We were designing a new currency of value—moving from time spent to data unlocked. Latttice lets domain owners ask questions of their data directly. No code. No consultants. No delays.

This shift mirrors a broader industry trend. As Gartner stated in its 2022 Data and Analytics report: "The rise of augmented analytics and no-code platforms is enabling business users to generate insights independently, reducing reliance on data teams and accelerating time to value."

Because the future of consulting isn’t about holding knowledge hostage. It’s about distributing it wisely.

You shouldn’t need a workshop to access your data. You shouldn’t need a roadmap to create insight. With Latttice, you just ask. In plain language. And you get answers. Fast.

Forbes captured this shift well: "Self-service analytics is revolutionizing how organizations harness data, making insights more accessible to business users through AI-powered tools."

We’re not selling hours. We’re selling freedom.

Freedom from bottlenecks. Freedom from jargon. Freedom from legacy models dressed up in AI language.

AI is not a service line. It’s a shift in power.

McKinsey & Company has seen this firsthand. As they noted about their internal AI assistant, Lilli: "Consultants using Lilli were able to reduce time spent on tasks by up to 30%, freeing them to focus on more impactful client work."

The consulting firms that survive this shift will be those who empower. Who embrace transparency. Who replace the whiteboard with real-time answers.

The rest? They risk becoming the BlackBerry of business advisory—remembered fondly, but left behind.

Don’t wait for the slide deck. Ask the question.

Let’s not settle for a shinier version of the old playbook. Let’s build better.

Cameron Price.

References:

1. Simon-Kucher & Partners. (2023). How Consulting Is Changing in the Age of AI. https://www.simon-kucher.com/en/insights/how-consulting-changing-age-ai

2. Harvard Business Review. (2023). How Generative AI Could Disrupt Traditional Consulting. https://hbr.org/2023/06/how-generative-ai-could-disrupt-traditional-consulting

3. McKinsey & Company. (2023). Inside Lilli: The AI that’s changing how McKinsey works. https://www.mckinsey.com/about-us/new-at-mckinsey-blog/inside-lilli-the-ai-thats-changing-how-mckinsey-works

4. Gartner. (2022). Top Trends in Data and Analytics for 2022. https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/gartner-top-trends-in-data-and-analytics-for-2022

5. Forbes. (2023). The Rise of Self-Service Analytics. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/07/18/the-rise-of-self-service-analytics-and-how-it-empowers-business-users