New Roles for Consultants in AI

5 roles I think we'll see sooner rather than later in our emerging AI-Forward world: 🤝 (1) Human-AI Interaction Designer Crafting AI personalities that adapt seamlessly to diverse users and contexts. They'll design clear boundaries for when AI defers to humans, enhancing our abilities without fostering dependency or imbalance. E.g., ensuring AI interactions with healthcare patients remain empathetic, supportive, and deferential to professional judgment 🧠 (2) AI Behaviour Therapist Diagnosing unexpected AI behaviours by tracing issues through data, model architecture, or emergent patterns. They'll implement targeted interventions—like fine-tuning and retraining—to ensure AI behaves predictably and ethically. E.g., addressing biased decision-making in AI hiring tools 🧪 (3) Synthetic Data Designer Masterfully blending real and synthetic datasets to shape precise AI outcomes. These experts will fine-tune data combinations to enhance capabilities and proactively eliminate bias. E.g., creating tailored synthetic data to train fraud detection systems in financial services ⚖️ (4) AI Compliance Officer Translating complex, evolving global AI regulations into actionable technical guidelines. They’ll bridge law, ethics, and technology, ensuring AI systems remain compliant yet highly functional. E.g., ensuring financial algorithms meet regulatory fairness standards 🛡️ (5) Cognitive Firewall Engineer Building invisible safeguards that protect essential human decision-making authority. They’ll prevent "automation creep" by ensuring human oversight at critical decision points across workflows. E.g., safeguarding human approval in automated medical diagnoses. Three characteristics span across these emerging roles: 1️⃣ Setting AI-Human Boundaries: Clearly defining the limits between human and machine intelligence, empowering rather than replacing human judgment 2️⃣ Interpreting Emergent Behaviours: Tackling unpredictable AI behaviours through continuous observation and dynamic, adaptive responses 3️⃣ Guarding Human Agency: Preserving meaningful human control amidst growing AI integration, ensuring technology remains a powerful tool rather than an unchecked force Which roles resonate? And which emerging roles did I miss? #AIForward #FutureRoles

I just read something from MIT Sloan that made me laugh. Not because it's funny. Because it's so obvious, yet far from most of our minds amidst all the hype. "AI won't give you a competitive advantage." In 1995, my neighbor thought he was a genius for getting on "the internet." By 2000, his grandmother was sending him chain emails. By 2005, every business had a website or they were dead. Revolutionary technology has this annoying habit of becoming ordinary. Remember when having a mobile app made you innovative? Now my corner pizza shop's app UX shames half the Fortune 500. AI is walking down the same path, and we're all acting like we've just discovered fire. Your competitors are also holding matches. They have ChatGPT, too. They can buy the same tools, access the same data. Picture two chefs in identical kitchens with identical ingredients. One makes microwave dinners. The other creates Michelin-starred masterpieces. What makes the difference? The chef. AI's no different. Two marketers use the same tool. One generates generic sludge. The other creates scroll-stopping campaigns. The magic is in HOW the humans dance with the machine. Right now, most treat AI like a cost-cutting chainsaw. Fire people, automate everything, call it innovation. The smart move is investing MORE in human talent, instead. Creating new roles: - Prompt whisperers who coax brilliance from silicon - AI trainers who teach bots to think like customers - Human-AI choreographers who design the perfect creative genius at scale Your competitive advantage comes from having the smartest humans teach your bots how to out-think everyone else’s. #AI #FutureofWork #CompetitiveAdvantage #AIInMarketing Credit: Screenshot of from MIT Sloan Management Review (link in comments).

Stop calling yourself a “consulting firm.” That title is going extinct. We are also changing it :O If you’re still selling decks, manual analysis, and time-based retainers... You’re building a 2010s business in a 2030s world. Let me break this down based on what we’re seeing right now: Top firms are already shifting: BCG is piloting internal agent ecosystems for research + benchmarking McKinsey is training junior consultants to become prompt engineers Deloitte is building LLM-based decision simulators for client strategy They’re not replacing consultants. They’re augmenting them — turning smart people into insight orchestrators. The new consulting model looks like this: 1. Agent-powered discovery Research, insight summaries, opportunity analysis Tools: Perplexity AI, ChatGPT 2. Prompt-native consultants Deep domain expertise + ability to guide LLMs Trained on frameworks, not just templates 3. Simulated decision-making Predictive agents stress-test strategy recommendations Open-source projects like AutoSimulate are just the start 4. Productized service layers Playbooks turn into micro-platforms Deliverables evolve into dashboards, agents, automations Real example from our world: We helped a boutique consultancy deploy HR AI to: ✅ Analyze 5 years of hiring and retention data ✅ Build a talent intelligence dashboard ✅ Simulate the impact of hybrid policy shifts Result? - 40% drop in attrition - New $400K+ recurring revenue stream from productized delivery The uncomfortable truth? - Insight alone won’t be enough. - It’s insight orchestration that will win. Don’t fight the AI shift — build on it. You’re not just a consultant anymore. You’re a strategist, a systems thinker, and a conductor of agents. And the firms who lean in? They’re not going extinct. They’re becoming the platforms of the next decade. #AgenticAI #Consulting #LLMs #FutureOfWork #AIConsulting #LiquidTechnologies #Strategy