The importance of building AI skills for a future-proofed consulting sector

While consulting existed in one form or another for centuries, the industry currently faces one of the fastest periods of chance in its history. Nelson Sivalingam, CEO and Co-Founder of AI upskilling platform HowNow, explains how consulting firms can build people capability and skill readiness to ensure consultants remain billable in a fast-changing environment.

Consulting and advisory services have been around for hundreds of years in one form or another. The business of selling people’s knowledge and expertise is an age-old practice that’s stood the test of time because it delivers value and drives performance. And yet today, the consulting industry stands at a crossroads: either it reshapes itself for the world that’s coming, or it gets left behind.

So what’s driving this?

Rising complexity and market conditions are certainly contributing factors. Consulting firms are vying for business in a hyper-competitive market that’s being disrupted by AI and new technologies. Alongside this, client expectations are increasing, talent shortages are growing, and economic uncertainty persists.

Those who do nothing in response to these challenges may survive on reputation for a time. But they won’t stay competitive.

To create growth, consulting firms are having to adapt at speed, accelerating digital transformation and AI adoption to increase efficiency, agility and competitive advantage. In a bid to stay relevant and maximise value, many consultancies are also expanding and diversifying their services to meet changing client needs and expectations.

Of course, whether or not companies are successful in these efforts is contingent on them having the right skills, at the right time. What this boils down to is capability — and this is why the future of consulting will be determined by how well, and how quickly, organisations can upskill their people. This is, after all, an industry that markets itself on the expertise of its people. Those with the greatest knowledge and most sought-after skills, will always win.

Build, don’t buy: the sustainable skills model

In years gone by, healthy recruitment budgets and an employer’s market made hiring the standard route to closing skills gaps. That’s not the case today. High turnover – fuelled by employees’ search for bigger salaries, career progression, and better work-life balance – has created a cycle of repeat hiring and rising costs. On top of this, skills requirements are evolving rapidly, which means skill-ready talent is increasingly hard to find.

This is why buying skills is no longer a sustainable strategy for consulting firms that want to future-proof their success. Instead, the solution lies in building capabilities from within, through personalised, skills-led learning.

So how can consultancies build the skills they need in 2026 and beyond?

It all starts with understanding what skills the business needs, which ones it already has, and where the gaps lie. In other words, what skills do our consultants need in order to be better than those working for our competitors (both now and in the future)? Which of these critical skills do they currently hold, and to what proficiency level? And how can we close the gaps quickly and effectively at scale?

Business consultants are arguably better placed than most to answer the first of these questions. They’re used to assessing market conditions, growth strategies, and the competitor landscape. It’s what they do best. Leveraging this knowledge in conjunction with skill forecasting tools provides a valuable route to identifying current and future skills requirements. 

The second question – which skills do we actually have? – has always been the hardest to answer. For years, organisations relied on snapshots: annual reviews, spreadsheets, surveys. But skills evolve with the work to be done, and by the time you capture them, they’ve already changed.

AI allows us to do this differently. Now we can measure skills continuously, building lightweight reviews directly into the flow of work, then combining them with AI analysis of real operational and business data. Instead of incomplete or out-of-date assessments, this delivers a live, dynamic picture of capability across the organisation. A true skills map. As current as the work itself.

Once you can finally see your current skills reality, the next question becomes simple: what does each person need to learn next in order to close the gap? This is where intelligent learning platforms step in. They use AI agents to instantly connect people with the precise knowledge, coaching, and learning experiences they need, aligned to their role, their goals, and the exact moment they’re in.

And this goes far beyond recommending a course. AI can now personalise learning down to the smallest atomic unit: the very next word. It can deliver the perfect next step: the right answer, a coaching conversation, a real-world simulation, or a deeper dive into a topic, complete with examples and analogies shaped to that person’s context. All grounded in credible, referenceable expertise from inside and outside the business.

One-to-one coaching for every consultant

And this is where the real breakthrough happens.

With AI agents, every consultant can finally have something they’ve never had before: their own coach. A coach who understands them, their strengths, their gaps, their ambitions. Someone who also understands their organisation’s context: its expectations, its clients, its knowledge, its playbook.

These coaches are also readily available to learners as part of their day-to-day work: guiding, nudging, preparing. Helping them to tackle today’s challenges while building the skills they’ll need for tomorrow’s. Supporting them as they draft proposals, get ready for client meetings, learn new frameworks, or step into bigger mandates.

And because this teaching is instant, contextual, and infinitely scalable, it accelerates something consulting firms care deeply about: readiness. It ensures every consultant builds the skills they need to be confident, capable and billable.

For the first time, organisations can give every consultant the guidance and support that used to be reserved for a select few. Not with more training, but with smarter, more personal, more responsive teaching, delivered exactly when they need it.