- The article suggests that predictions of AI replacing the consulting industry have not materialized; instead, AI is completely reshaping the sector.
- OpenAI recently established the OpenAI Deployment Company with resources exceeding 4 billion USD through the acquisition of Tomoro, bringing in about 150 Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs).
- Anthropic is also recruiting FDEs to work directly with strategic clients and build solutions based on Claude.
- The author argues that the true product of consulting has never been slides or reports, but the ability to build consensus, drive decision-making, and implement change within an organization.
- AI is automating a large portion of the work done by junior consultants, such as research, information synthesis, report writing, and slide creation.
- McKinsey, BCG, and Deloitte have deployed internal AI platforms like Lilli, Deckster, and Zora AI to replace many traditional tasks.
- However, roughly 95% of AI pilot projects in enterprises fail to generate a measurable business impact due to failures in workflow integration.
- The author notes that the AI bottleneck has shifted from model quality to actual enterprise deployment.
- FDEs have become central figures because they understand the technology while simultaneously solving operational, data, internal political, and change-management issues.
- Palantir is viewed as a pioneer, having introduced the FDE model more than 20 years ago by sending engineers to work directly inside client organizations.
- Unlike traditional consulting, which only provides recommendations, FDEs are responsible for building functional, real-world systems and are evaluated based on client adoption rates.
- OpenAI did not just acquire 150 engineers; it bought access to hundreds of enterprise workflows that standard AI benchmarks cannot observe.
- Accenture recorded 5.9 billion USD in generative AI revenue for fiscal year 2025, nearly doubling from the previous year, signaling a surge in demand for AI deployment services.
- The author forecasts that the boundary between software companies and consulting firms will gradually vanish as both converge on the same role of enterprise AI deployment.
- 📌 Conclusion: AI is not eliminating consulting but splitting the industry into two: the research, report-writing, and slide-making portions are being automated by AI, while the task of implementing organizational change becomes more valuable than ever. The emergence of Forward Deployed Engineers at OpenAI, Anthropic, and Palantir reflects the reality that AI’s greatest challenge today is not creating intelligence, but embedding that intelligence into enterprise workflows. With over 4 billion USD invested in the OpenAI Deployment Company and Accenture’s generative AI revenue hitting 5.9 billion USD, the new competition will revolve around who can turn AI into actual business results the fastest.
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