If you’ve worked in or around consulting for any length of time, you get used to cycles – expansion, contraction, reinvention. The latest signal, this time driven by artificial intelligence, suggests another turn of the wheel.
The Financial Times reports that US consulting growth is forecast to reach 7 per cent this year – the fastest pace since the immediate post-pandemic rebound. The driver is clear: AI.
After several years of caution, companies appear ready to move beyond pilots and experimentation. They want measurable returns. They want AI embedded in operations. And they want delivery.
That shift matters.
From experimentation to execution
When organisations move from experimentation to execution, the questions change. It is no longer about whether AI is interesting. It is about whether it works – commercially, operationally and culturally.
For independent consultants and communication advisers, this is where things become more interesting.
AI implementation is not only a systems project, it is also an organisational one. It reshapes workflows, expectations, incentives and, in some cases, power. Leaders need to explain why they are investing, what it means for roles and performance, and how risk will be managed. They need to demonstrate that governance is real, not cosmetic. None of that can be delegated to a dashboard.
The technical build may sit with IT or external integrators. Credibility sits with leadership – and credibility has to be articulated clearly and consistently.
There is, however, a note of caution. The FT describes the coming year as one of “selective acceleration”, not a broad-based boom. Budgets will flow to initiatives with measurable return. Price pressure will remain. The largest firms will capture the biggest transformation mandates.
Which means independents will need clarity about where they genuinely add value – and where they do not.
This won't stay a US-only story for long
The forecast focuses on the US market, but it would be naïve to assume the implications stop at the Atlantic.
The major consultancies operate globally. So do the AI vendors. And large UK organisations rarely ignore structural shifts in the US advisory market for long. The UK consulting market may not move at the same pace, and economic constraints will temper ambition. But if AI implementation is becoming execution-focused in the US, it is reasonable to expect similar pressures here – particularly around measurable ROI, governance and workforce adaptation.
The opportunity is not to compete on scale. It is to connect AI capability to organisational behaviour. To ask better questions. To anticipate second-order consequences. To help leaders think clearly as they accelerate.
If the consulting market is entering a new growth phase, whether in the US first or more gradually in the UK, the real question for independents may not be whether demand is rising.
It will be whether we are positioning ourselves as implementers of tools – or as interpreters of change.
Source:
- Consultancies set for fastest growth in years on back of AI boom - Financial Times, 23 February 2026
