#3: Five big numbers for 2017

By Fiona Czerniawska.

This is the proportion of the consulting market we think could be taken over by a new breed of intelligent machines. Put a different way, three quarters of the consulting industry could disappear over the next 10 years.

We don’t foresee a world in which high-value consulting will be automated, but the fact that clients increasingly say low-cost consulting is a different market paves the way for far greater automation in that space. As research we’ve been carrying out for the forthcoming publications in our Strategic Planning Programme reveals, data gathering and work done by junior consultants will fall victim to automation first: 98% of senior US clients think that digital technology will change the way consulting is done.