The 3 Shifts That Will Make or Break Consulting Firms in 2026 — and How to Activate Them

Client expectations are sky-high. They want measurable outcomes — and they want them fast. At the same time, firms are being asked to deliver senior judgment at scale, increasingly powered by AI, while talent models, delivery systems, and planning processes struggle to keep up.

The core challenge isn’t just adopting AI, it’s developing AI capability fast enough to meet client expectations without breaking trust, margins, or delivery quality.

In this session, we’ll break down these challenges and show how firms must rethink resourcing and delivery in 2026 — coordinating human expertise with AI leverage, accelerating outcome-based delivery, and building the visibility and trust required to move at speed.

What we’ll cover:

• How to align senior judgment and AI capability to deliver outcomes faster
• Ways to improve resourcing and planning visibility to reduce delivery risk and margin leakage
• How to operationalize outcome-based delivery beyond pilots and promises
• How to attribute work, cost, and value across hybrid teams of humans and AI
• How to build trust in data and AI outputs so teams can move quickly with confidence

This session is for professional services leaders navigating rising client expectations who want clear, actionable guidance on what to prioritize now to compete in the next era of consulting.