AI Boom Exposes Gaps In Consulting Firms’ Capabilities

Consulting firms made exaggerated AI promises to clients, who now handle generative AI projects independently as their initial work failed to deliver the promised results.

The consulting industry invested billions of dollars during the last three years to help businesses implement AI, as they wanted to lead the adoption of this technology.

An article by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) delineates how the initial marketing efforts made substantial claims about expected outcomes. The PricewaterhouseCoopers advertisement declared: “Nobody makes AI work for your business like PwC. Their slogan: “We don’t just bring promises. We bring results.”

But reality has fallen short. WSJ reports that many clients argue that consultants have no more AI experience than their internal teams, and they struggle to scale successful experiments across the business.

Dave Williams, Chief Information and Digital Officer at Merck, said, “We love our partners, but oftentimes they’re learning on our dime,” as reported by WSJ.

Executives across industries report similar frustrations. WSJ reports that Greg Meyers, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Bristol-Myers Squibb, said, “If I were to go hire a consultant to help me figure out how to use Gemini CLI or Claude Code, you’re going to find a partner at one of the Big Four has no more or less experience than a kid in college who tried to use it.”

WSJ notes that the company terminated its one-year partnership with a major consulting firm to start working on generative AI projects independently.

WSJ reports that others echoed the sentiment. Magesh Sarma of AmeriSave Mortgage said, “They overpromised […] we discovered that they really also had no idea how to do these things. They were just as good or as bad as what we would have been able to do in house.”

Pat Petitti, CEO of Catalant, added, “Man, they came in, they charged us $20 million and what I feel like we got was a very long report on where AI is going without any real practical application,” as reported by WSJ.

Still, some value remains. Large consulting firms can provide industry insights and extra support.

WSJ reports that Accenture, KPMG, and others report rising AI demand. Fiona Czerniawska, CEO of Source Global Research, said, “You’ve got a generation of CIOs that are going to be quite skeptical about consultants’ ability to deploy AI…However, from the consulting firms’ point of view, there will be a second wave and this is where they will make most of their money.”

For now, the consulting industry is learning the hard way: AI promises are easier to sell than to deliver.