AI & The State of The Consulting Business Model

The consulting industry’s organizational model is undergoing a fundamental structural transformation, not a cyclical adjustment.

For decades, the pyramid model (thousands of junior analysts feeding work upward to fewer senior partners) served as the industry’s core mechanism for value creation, talent development, and profit extraction.

AI is now compressing this structure through three competing architectural visions:

• The Obelisk (fewer layers, smaller junior base),

• The Hourglass (hollowed middle, preserved extremes),

• And the Box (near-equal senior/junior ratios).

This isn’t about efficiency gains, it’s about a fundamental rewiring of how knowledge work is organized, priced, and delivered.