The Future of Management Consulting, with AI
A point of view by Shanaka Jayasinghe, Partner at Trace Consultants
Let me get this out of the way upfront: yes, I used AI to help draft this article.
Not because I couldn’t write it. But because, like everyone else, I’m learning how to use these tools effectively—and because it would be disingenuous to talk about the future of management consulting without using the very technology we’re all trying to understand.
AI is already transforming the way organisations think, plan, and operate. For consulting firms—especially those of us who work deeply in supply chain and procurement—this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. We must confront what AI automates, where human expertise still holds unmatched value, and how our role needs to evolve.
At Trace, we see this evolution playing out every day across our projects—from rethinking warehouse and transport networks, the automation of forecasting & purchasing decisions, to the redesigning back-of-house logistics for major hospitals.
The future isn’t about competing with AI. It’s about integrating it—so we can go deeper, act faster, and deliver smarter outcomes for our clients.
Consulting’s Core Promise Hasn’t Changed—But How We Deliver It Must
Great consulting has never been just about providing answers. It’s about helping clients solve problems they can’t—or shouldn’t—tackle alone. It’s about building trust, embedding change, and transferring capability.
I read a fantastic piece on consulting back in 2018 that's shaped my perspective since. Robert Hillard wrote in The Mandarin, consulting is at its best when it’s:
- Trusted – grounded in long-term relationships, not transactions
- Transformative – unlocking change that sticks
- Transferable – leaving clients better equipped than before
These principles remain true in the age of AI. But how we deliver against them is changing—fast.
A Growing Irony in the Consulting Sector
There’s a strange paradox emerging. Many global consulting firms are promoting AI as the key to competitive advantage. Yet in doing so, they’re also accelerating the commoditisation of some of their own services.
As a former Director at Accenture, I’ve seen firsthand how large firms—built for scale and capacity—are grappling with this shift. Their latest global strategy, as reported in the AFR, reflects a sharp pivot towards AI-powered service lines. But in doing so, many are caught in a tension between automating delivery and preserving value.
If AI can automate benchmarking, generate strategy slides, simulate business cases, and process supply chain data in minutes—then why engage a traditional consultant?
The answer, of course, is: it depends on what you want.
If you want a generic solution based on global best practice and internal toolkits, AI might be enough. But if you want something fit-for-purpose, grounded in the operational realities of your business, and actually implementable—then you still need people who understand how supply chains work on the ground, how technology integrates across the stack, and how to drive alignment across stakeholders.
That’s where the difference lies. And it’s where Trace has always focused our value.
The Spotlight on Big Consulting—and the Rise of Boutique Specialists
The broader context cannot be ignored. The PwC Australia tax scandal has prompted a wave of scrutiny around consulting engagements—especially within government.
Large firms, once the default, are now under more pressure than ever to justify cost, independence, and delivery value. In this environment, boutique firms like us have found greater traction—not just because we’re smaller, but because we’re specialists.
We bring deep, operational expertise in supply chain and procurement—not just strategy, but execution. We know how to redesign supply chain technology aerchitectures and work with operators to optimise for outcomes - whether that be oriented towards driving service, growth or cost outcomes. We know what warehouse constraints actually look like on site. We know how to navigate and implement change in complex government and commercial environments.
What’s Becoming Less Valuable in Consulting
AI has already made some aspects of our profession redundant—and more change is coming.
Tasks like deck-building, benchmarking, financial modelling, and process mapping are being automated. These used to be core deliverables; now they’re inputs, or even by-products, of the real work.
Some forms of IT consulting, particularly those relying on offshoring or capacity-based delivery models, are at risk. Why engage a team to build a data model over three weeks when an AI tool can structure 80% of it in a day?
Clients expect—and deserve—faster, more efficient delivery.
Let’s call it out clearly:
1. Generic Benchmarking and Presentation Building
Once a differentiator, now a commodity. If you’re producing decks that repackage existing content, clients will quickly realise they can generate it themselves—with better data and in less time.
2. Surface-Level Expertise
Summarising industry trends or deploying generic maturity models without tailoring to the client’s operating model, commercial context, or tech stack is no longer good enough. Clients want specific, actionable insights.
3. Man-Hour Based Operating Models
Charging for time rather than outcomes is under threat. When a task is automatable, the expectation will shift toward fixed-price, outcome-based delivery—especially in areas like procurement diagnostics, network design modelling, or demand planning.
Consultants need to go beyond what AI can do. That’s the new bar.
What’s Becoming More Valuable in Consulting
As AI takes over commoditised tasks, the real value in consulting shifts to the things it can’t do—yet.
1. Deep Domain and Operational Expertise
Nowhere is this more true than in supply chain and procurement.
From configuring a WMS system for complex warehouse flows to evaluating supplier transition risk across a hospital network, the nuance required can’t be faked.
Our clients choose us because we understand their operations at a granular level. We know what happens at the loading dock. We understand how a supplier shift affects patient flow, shift rostering, or site safety.
That’s not something AI can infer from a spreadsheet.
2. Human Connection and Change Enablement
AI doesn’t build trust. It doesn’t resolve tension in a boardroom or help a CFO navigate uncertainty in a capital project.
Consulting is still about people. That’s more true than ever in a world where technology creates answers, but humans make decisions.
3. Strategic Intuition and Decision Framing
AI can present options—but it can’t navigate trade-offs in a complex business environment.
Whether we’re advising on S&OP frameworks, indirect procurement strategies, or warehouse footprints, our clients value judgement—the kind that comes from doing it before, in multiple contexts, and knowing where to flex.
The Architecture Challenge: Data Disintegration in Supply Chains
If there’s one thing holding organisations back from AI-enabled transformation—it’s their fragmented system landscape.
In supply chain, we see this daily:
- ERP for finance and materials
- APS for planning
- WMS and TMS for logistics
- P2P for procurement
- BI tools for reporting
- All alongside countless excel spreadsheets!!!
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Each holds different data, structures, and timestamps—creating blind spots and inefficiencies.
This leads to:
- Limited visibility of landed costs or working capital
- Duplicate supplier records
- Misaligned planning and execution
- Excel-heavy workarounds
AI won’t solve this alone. But it can help:
- Integration layers to harmonise data
- Agents to fill data gaps with external benchmarks
- Decision engines to simulate outcomes across constraints
But only if consultants know how to apply it operationally.
A New Model of Consulting: AI-Augmented, Human-Led
At Trace, we believe the future isn’t AI versus people—it’s AI plus people, each playing to their strengths.
Our model is simple:
- AI does the heavy lifting – data ingestion, pattern recognition, workflow automation
- Our consultants lead the thinking – alignment, change, solution design, implementation
Whether optimising a warehouse network, designing linen logistics for a new hospital, or deploying scheduling tools for aged care—our team uses AI to go faster but always lead with human judgement.
What This Means for Talent
The consultant of the future isn’t just a generalist. They’re:
- A systems thinker
- An operations expert
- A change leader
- A technologist (even if not a coder)
- A trusted advisor
At Trace, our team includes planners, engineers, operators, integrators—and the occasional AI enthusiast.
These are the people who will thrive in the future of consulting.
The More Things Change, the More We Need to Stay Human
AI will replace parts of consulting. But it will also elevate it.
Our job is not to resist the shift—but to lean into it with clarity, ethics, and courage.
To stop charging for what’s easy.
To focus on what’s hard.
To go deeper.
To be faster.
To stay human.
At Trace, that’s been our model since day one: operational depth, client intimacy, real-world results.
Yes, I used AI to help write this.
But it’s the human insight that makes it matter.
