{"slug": "the-best-reinvention-consultants-can-make-in-the-ai-era-is-to-their-pricing", "title": "The best reinvention consultants can make in the AI era is to their pricing model", "summary": "Consultants in the AI era are being urged to adopt outcome-based pricing, where fees are tied to project results, as traditional billable hours and fixed-fee models become misaligned with AI's efficiency gains. Business Insider reports that clients increasingly demand consultants have 'skin in the game,' with the shift affecting major firms like McKinsey and tech giants' consulting arms. The change poses risks for consultants but may be necessary as AI questions their value.", "body_md": "**Consultants are having an identity crisis.**\n\nAI's arrival has raised questions about the value consultants provide. And while people have always questioned what consultants actually do, the AI era has magnified the issue.\n\nConsultants are rebranding themselves and overhauling how they pitch their services to clients. It's led to [ the rise of the \"AI-native\" consultant](https://www.businessinsider.com/consulting-race-to-become-ai-native-tech-first-2026-8), where the tech sits at the center of everything they do, writes BI's Polly Thompson.\n\nFrom cutting major partnership deals with AI companies to leaning into tech-driven projects and away from generalist work, it's a big shift for a trillion-dollar industry.\n\nBut just *saying* you're AI native doesn't make it so. Polly spoke to insiders about whether the AI capabilities and experience consultants tout are more bark than bite.\n\nConsultants aren't the only ones spinning an AI narrative. There's been a general shift to reposition companies as AI-related. My colleague Melia Robinson noticed startups' tendency to [ slap \"AI\" on the back of their names](https://www.linkedin.com/in/meliarobinson/recent-activity/all/).\n\n**Consultants could prove their AI abilities by rethinking their pricing.**\n\nAfter all, if you are getting significant benefits from leveraging AI, shouldn't that change the way you charge clients?\n\nBillable hours and fixed-fee arrangements are two ways consultants have often been paid. Neither format is well suited to the AI era.\n\nFor consultants, billable hours become a problem when AI enables you to do the work in half the time. For clients, fixed-fee arrangements mean paying a set price even when AI's ROI isn't clear-cut.\n\nOne solution is [ outcome-based pricing](https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-reshapes-how-mckinsey-makes-money-consultancy-025-11). A client typically pays an upfront fee, with the remaining compensation contingent on a set of agreed-upon goals the project must meet.\n\nIn short, clients want their consultants to [ have some skin in the game](https://www.businessinsider.com/consulting-industry-pricing-outcome-based-ai-risk-2026-6). (It's not just pure consultants facing this pressure. The consulting arms of tech giants\n\n[.)](https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-aws-cloud-customers-proserve-consulting-fees-ai-automates-work-2026-2)\n\n__are getting similar requests__The fee structure does pose a risk for consultants since they can't control outside factors that might impact the success of a project. But with AI calling some of their value into question, they might not have much of a choice.\n\nAnd after all, they're AI native. Right?", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-best-reinvention-consultants-can-make-in-the-ai-era-is-to-their-pricing", "canonical_source": "https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-consulting-industry-shift-outcome-based-pricing-model-2026-8", "published_at": "2026-08-24 10:50:17+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-24 11:15:50.986466+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["Business Insider", "Polly Thompson", "Melia Robinson", "McKinsey"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-best-reinvention-consultants-can-make-in-the-ai-era-is-to-their-pricing", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-best-reinvention-consultants-can-make-in-the-ai-era-is-to-their-pricing.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-best-reinvention-consultants-can-make-in-the-ai-era-is-to-their-pricing.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-best-reinvention-consultants-can-make-in-the-ai-era-is-to-their-pricing.jsonld"}}