AI isn’t just transforming consulting operations; it’s distorting consulting timelines. Instead of adapting after results materialize, firms are restructuring in advance of AI returns. This creates a new macro-dynamic: the Anticipation Economy — where firms make irreversible decisions today based on tomorrow’s hypothetical productivity.
The industry has entered a feedback loop where the fix creates the necessity for the fix.
1. CUT — Hiring stops
Graduate hiring collapses. Firms reduce analyst intake by as much as 50 percent. Salaries are frozen for multiple years to preserve margins.
2. GAP — Capacity falls
With fewer juniors, firms lose the labor buffer that historically absorbed analytical load, deck production, research, and coordination. A structural capacity deficit opens.
3. NEED — AI must fill the hole now
Because the bottom of the pyramid no longer exists, AI isn’t optional. It becomes mandatory infrastructure simply to maintain baseline delivery.
4. PUSH — Acceleration becomes imperative
The “AI must work” mindset emerges. Teams push harder on automation, orchestration, prompt standardization, and workflow redesign because human fallback options have been eliminated.
5. DONE — The prophecy fulfills itself
Firms point to their internal cuts as proof that AI was necessary. The bet becomes self-validating, regardless of whether the underlying economics have matured.
What This Really Means
The consulting industry is shrinking the plane mid-flight — removing wings, seats, and engines while insisting AI will compensate before landing.
Executives are effectively saying: “Trust us — we’ll figure it out in mid-air.”
But this is not strategy. It’s pressure-driven adaptation created by anticipation, not measured performance.
The traditional consulting model gets smaller in the rearview mirror:
Less junior capacity
Thinner mid-layers
Reliance on AI as operational substrate
Narrower apprenticeship pathways
Faster burnout for remaining human operators
This is the largest structural gamble the industry has taken in decades.
The Bet
50 percent reduction in graduate hiring Three-year salary freeze Assumption: AI fills the gap
The risk? If the underlying AI systems don’t deliver the projected efficiency quickly enough, firms will face a compounding deficit:
too few humans,
too much automation debt,
and no institutional redundancy.
The Anticipation Economy isn’t about efficiency. It’s about accelerating the collapse of the old model — and forcing the new one to work because there is no alternative.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
