I have always been a lover of technology. By DNA, I am an early adopter. Back in the 80s, I was the first person I knew to own a CD player; 20 years later, I was the first with an MP3 player. I had digital fingerprint locks on my doors before they were a hardware-store staple, and I was carrying a Canon ELPH digital camera and printing at home when most people were still dropping off rolls of film at the pharmacy. I was on social media before it was “cool,” and during the pandemic, I was not just on Zoom — I was producing professional-grade live-stream concerts with a full tech stack so people could actually hear and see the music properly.
I do not fear the future; I buy it as soon as it is available.
So, when a brilliant Master of Business Administration (MBA) candidate from one of the top programs in the U.S. — someone I had worked with in a “past life” — dropped a question that felt like a cold splash of water, I did not react as a Luddite. I reacted as a consultant.
“So, now that artificial intelligence (AI) can do market assessments on its own, what are Junior Associates even doing these days?”
It ticked me off. Not because she was being dismissive, but because she is incredibly smart. She knows exactly what it takes to build a strategy from scratch. But like many today, she had fallen for the “Generative Mirage” — the idea that because a large language model (LLM) can summarize a 100-page PDF in three seconds, it can suddenly navigate the messy, unindexed reality of global business.
I did not argue. I just gave her a challenge: “Go try it. Build a full-scale market assessment for an obscure industrial niche using only AI. See you in two weeks.”
Fourteen days later, she came back with a very different tone: “There is no way to reach the level of precision we used to get. It’s a mile wide, but an inch deep.”
The ‘Speed of Light’ Trap
AI is a magnificent engine. In our firm, we have seen it transform the “science” of consulting. A 2025 Harvard study of Boston Consulting Group consultants found that those using AI finished tasks 25% faster with 40% higher quality — but only on “within-frontier” tasks. AI is an unbeatable tool for:
- Raw Speed: Obtaining “easy-to-collect” data — past volume growth, historical compound annual growth rates (CAGRs), and regional revenue splits — used to take 20 hours. Now? It takes 20 seconds.
- Cross-Referencing: AI can digest 50 different annual reports and find the three anomalies that actually matter.
- Storyboarding: It is a master at taking a chaotic pile of notes and structuring them into a compelling narrative.
But here is where the silicon hits the wall.
I. Market Assessments: The ‘Dark Data’ Problem
AI relies on the “Surface Web.” If it is not digitized, it does not exist to the machine. But in high-stakes consulting — particularly in emerging markets — the most valuable data is “dark.”
- The Machine Limit: AI can tell you the theoretical market size based on World Bank data. It cannot tell you that 30% of the volume in a specific region moves through “informal” channels that never hit a balance sheet.
- The Human Edge: We go where the data is not. We interview former employees, talk to distributors about who they really buy from, and find the “hidden” giants — private firms that avoid public relations (PR) and have websites from 2004. AI gives you the average; we give you the anomaly.
II. Supply Chain: The ‘Paper vs. Pavement’ Gap
A supply chain is not just nodes and lines on a screen; it is a living, breathing organism of people, politics, and physical friction.
- The Machine Limit: AI is unmatched at “Digital Twin” modeling. It can ingest 10,000 shipments and tell you the “optimal” route. But AI does not know the Ground Truth. It does not know that a specific port is currently slowed down by a local labor dispute that has not hit the news yet. It does not understand that a “lean” inventory strategy is a death sentence in a region where infrastructure often collapses during the rainy season.
- The Complexity of “Why”: AI can tell you that a shipment is late. It cannot tell you why the local customs official is suddenly holding up cargo or that a warehouse manager in a remote province is prioritizing a competitor because of a 20-year-old personal relationship.
- The Human Edge: We do not just look at the map; we know the pavement. We provide the “last-mile” intuition that realizes an “optimal” route on a screen is actually a bottleneck in reality.
III. M&A and Deal Making: The ‘Three Sons’ Paradox
A deal is not “closed” when the math works; it is closed when the humans involved feel safe.
- The Machine Limit: AI is a due diligence machine. It can scan thousands of contracts for legal risks in minutes. But it cannot read the room.
- The Human Edge: We are diplomats. AI cannot navigate the psychology of a founder who started with one truck and now has 500 — and whose three sons all expect to run the company but none agree on the price. We negotiate the ego, the legacy, and the family resentment — things an LLM will never have the “emotional intelligence” to process.
The ‘Jiminy Cricket’ Factor: The Trusted Advisor
Beyond the data and the deals, there is a fourth pillar that AI can never replicate: privileged context.
For those of us who have been in the trenches for decades, we are not just “service providers.” We are the “Jiminy Cricket” on the CEO’s shoulder.
AI does not know your client’s temper. It has not sat by their side for 10 years watching them make transformational decisions — seeing them rise, fail, and rise again. It does not know that while the chief financial officer’s (CFO’s) technical rigor is world-class, his courage under fire is his “Achilles’ heel.”
That information is privileged. It becomes pivotal when a board is deciding whether to enter a new market, hire or fire a key executive, or choose Software A over Software B. AI might say “The data supports this hire,” but the veteran consultant says, “I know this leader’s style, and they will clash with your culture within six months.” That is the “Whisper in the Ear” that saves companies billions.
The New Equilibrium
We are currently in a transition where the “Consultant of the Future” is neither a human nor a machine. As of 2026, while the global AI consulting market has surged, the demand for senior human strategic advisors has reached an all-time high.
Why? Because in an era of infinite information, judgment is the only remaining scarcity. The AI gives us the “baseline”: “the what.” The consultant gives the “edge”: the so what.”
So, to my MBA friend and my colleagues: AI is not going to take your job. But a consultant who knows how to blend AI’s brute force with human intuition and decades of “Jiminy Cricket” wisdom definitely will.
Not yet, AI… not yet.
© Copyright 2026. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of Ankura Consulting Group, LLC, its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, or its other professionals. Ankura is not a law firm and cannot provide legal advice.
