Tech Consulting in 2025

The consulting playbook is breaking down.

AI. Budget cuts. More with less. Skeptical buyers. Ruthless prioritization.

I said in my last post that this isn’t a market dip. I called it what it is: a structural reset.

I don’t love all of what I’m seeing, but let’s be real:

The market doesn’t care what we’re used to. It’s moving on.

Here’s what a structural reset looks like in practice:

The Value of Junior Talent Is Collapsing

→ Old playbook: Hire armies of juniors to learn on the client’s dime.
→ New reality: LLMs are the new junior consultants. Clients aren’t paying $200/hr for a junior BA that sits on a zoom call with their camera off and adds zero value.

AI & Automation Are Collapsing Value Chains
What used to take a team now takes one senior resource + ChatGPT.

→ Old playbook: 6 people for 6 months.
→ New reality: 1 senior with a prompt library + LLM delivers 80% in 6 weeks

Transformation Theater Is Out
Boards want ROI, not 100-slide decks.

→ Old playbook: $1M, 18-week roadmap with 1 release
→ New reality: Deliver measurable outcomes in 90 days or get cut. deliver>measure repeat

Buyers Are Sharper And More Skeptical
They know fluff when they see it.

→ Old playbook: Wow with frameworks and jargon. Assumes the client doesn’t get the tech or strategy.
→ New reality: Clients ask, “Can’t we do this with AI and two contractors?”. They’re asking who will be on the team before signature (vendors hate it but its smart).

Vendors Are Skipping the Middlemen
Salesforce, AWS, and ServiceNow are building AI accelerators to speed up value delivery.

→ Old playbook: Co-sell with the vendor
→ New reality: Vendors are sidelining partners who slow things down (sad but true because sometimes you need to slow down to speed up)

Clients Want Co-Owners, Not Just Tech Partners
Partnership theater is getting exposed.

→ Old playbook: “We need a technology partner”
→ New reality: “We need someone who owns the outcome with us”

Budget Cuts = Ruthless Focus
→ Old playbook: Add bodies. Throw budget at it. Make it happen.  Bill hours. Burn budget. Extend scope.
→ New reality: “What’s the smallest team that can get this done?” “What’s the ROI?”

Does this resonate?
Where else are you seeing the old playbook fall apart?
What are you doing differently?
What’s in your new playbook?
Is it even possible to create a new playbook with how fast everything is changing?