How consulting is about to change forever

Studies show a trend: consulting buyers want a new pricing model, but they still value the methods they buy. Driven by artificial intelligence, the buyer's view of how consultancy should be delivered is changing, putting the traditional hourly approach under scrutiny. That tells us the market is asking for a different model, while the IP that is delivered still sees demand.

In this article we put a positive light on that scenario. Many reports reference how consulting is under attack by new AI-native solutions and how billings are under pressure. We intentionally take a different approach, to turn that negative light into an opportunity.

01 · Your most valuable asset is under-utilised

When partners in firms talk about their business, they discuss the clients they serve, the strength of their brand, or the leading expertise their senior consultants deliver. Rarely do they point to the one thing that delivers the real revenue: the methods and practices which underpin engagements with clients and deliver results.

Our definition of a consulting method is the accumulated, structured approach that is developed to solve a problem. Often this is built on years of experience and includes diagnostics, workshops, decision frameworks or strategic processes. It is a result of years of execution, where practice and experience delivered by people have created approaches which lead to a good outcome. That is the success factor, and it is what people buy.

In traditional consulting, this is circumstantial, because revenue is driven by the hours that people spend on a project. Hours are the only means to bring those methods to market, and as that underpins the financials, the internal focus sits on utilisation and backlogs. The method is a critical part of delivery, but not a product in its own right.

With the predicted shift in markets, that is the strategic opportunity to capitalise on. When we start treating the method as the product, which we turn into a repeatable, priced and governed service, the focus shifts. Firms start answering the call for modernisation in the sector without undermining their own core business.

That was a shift previously impossible, since delivery was tied to people. The increasing capabilities of technology are removing that blockade, and large swathes of proven methodologies can be automated to a level where they deliver results at lower prices.

02 · The business case for productisation

The business case for investing in productisation, and the value of its opportunity, relies on the market shift that is happening. Almost two years ago, in October 2024, IBM and Oxford Economics performed a study which found that 73% of buyers were looking for new pricing models from their providers. That same study showed that 86% preferred services which combined advisory and AI or technology into one offer.

One year later, IDC FutureScape projected that by 2029, 30% of IT service contracts would be priced on outcome instead of hourly effort. BCG meanwhile estimates $200bn of net-new demand in technology services through 2030, from building and running agentic solutions and governing autonomous systems. This is demand growth, plain and simple. Buyers are telling the market what they want next, and they are prepared to pay for it.

So that trend, which started in 2024, is taking hold, and the market is responding to the demand. This is further confirmed by our own market research, which shows firms themselves are actively designing and building systems which either augment service delivery, or provide a complete alternative should their buyers prefer them.

For knowledge businesses, that means one thing. The methodologies that can be codified, repeated and automated present an immediate opportunity in the market to attract new revenue streams, which offset any losses or struggles on the traditional side. The market for a productised method exists, it is growing, and buyers are willing.

The question then is how you get to a productised service efficiently, and step into this demand quickly.

03 · From method to revenue line

The route to productisation is, of course, easier to put down on paper than to achieve in practice. Productising, or codifying the methodologies companies have, is not just about digitising a course, a PDF or instructional videos.

The key in the process is identifying the right methodologies, standardising them to the level where they deliver the same outcome every time, and then underpinning them with the technology that makes it work. The automation only follows the legwork, which is the product design.

In codified products, three properties move a method from document to standalone service:

Proprietary: the method is genuinely owned by the business and unique in the market, and there is no other business that delivers that same proven method.
Repeatable: the method follows the same process and structure every time it is deployed, with limited adaptations between engagements.
Governed: the structure and approach is actively managed to maintain one unified version, which is quality controlled and regularly updated.

Those elements make the method owned and recurring, exactly the foundations that have built SaaS businesses for decades. From there the key is to run an efficient and low-risk productisation process that brings minimum viable products to market.

Identify: assess the firm's service portfolio to find the methods that fit the productisation profile. Select only one, which is high value and low effort.
Design: turn the method into a design, describing the process, usage scenarios and expected outputs. After that, determine what the technical design looks like.
Prototype: create a first prototype, without aiming for perfection. Ask your senior delivery staff to test it against a wide range of scenarios, and optimise based on feedback to perfect the engine.
Build: once the prototype works, invest in a production build. Make sure the tool is secure, efficient and adheres to the relevant compliance regulations such as the EU AI Act.
Operate: when the product is ready, operate it. Monitor stability and outputs, and implement incremental improvements based on customer feedback.

The products eventually live next to traditional revenue lines, augmenting them and changing the economics of firms in the process. That is the second part, the organisational and economic change that needs to be managed.

04 · How the economics change

Economic outcome 1: broader access

Products carry a different price level and provide far broader market access. Prospects that were previously deemed too small are now viable customers.

This drives the number of deals up, against a lower average deal value. More customers lowers the average risk and exposure, and changes the dynamics of interaction.

Economic outcome 2: continued engagement

Where traditional engagements have a start and end date, productised services do not. Methods are turned into repeatable services which clients can use for many years, anchoring a firm's engagement in a way project-based work cannot.

This changes the economic metrics that indicate success. Contract value and wallet retention are the core metrics of a successful subscription service, and they must be tracked and reported.

Economic outcome 3: internal optimisation

The delivery organisation is materially different from the traditional model. Consultants that were previously engaged in projects can focus on more complex issues, which require human judgement.

The product meanwhile needs its own team. It needs operators, support staff and a sales organisation that knows how to sell it.

05 · Real economics: the promise and the risk

Finally, a realistic side note. Any successful product will need investment upfront, not just to build it, but also to align the organisation around it. It carries risk which needs to be assessed upfront. At Gysho this is why we recommend starting small, with a minimum viable product, which can prove itself before becoming a money pit.

If successful, it unlocks a lucrative business model. SaaS revenue does not scale linearly to the delivery like traditional consulting. The higher initial cost quickly turns into increasing margins, as the delivery relies on automation and not on hours. Cost per customer goes down for every new customer added.

06 · Questions for internal alignment

It is highly likely that the idea of productisation, or AI-based services, is already a topic at the partnership table. In our conversations we see three questions come up nearly every time, and here is our view on them.

Will productisation commoditise us?

It can, if the product selected is not a unique proprietary method. Codifying generic content makes it something any other firm can reproduce, in turn making it interchangeable with the next best solution delivering the same thing. Inevitably that is why the selection of the right method is the critical first step.

Genuinely proprietary methods are built on expertise that exists only in your organisation, and codifying those achieves the opposite of commoditisation. It articulates your unique value in a stronger way: the process you follow, the judgement you make, the inputs required. In a product this is more transparent, as it is operated by users, which in turn sharpens your differentiation instead of eroding it.

Will the product erode our current income streams?

Yes, though not in the direct sense firms are concerned about. Delivering the same method in a new package inevitably takes a small share from the hours of the people who delivered it in the past. That is an economic shift.

However, that shift is not instant. In practice we see it taking place only once buyers move to a productised method, and it is much more gradual than sudden. Due to the different economics of scaling, the experts often start working on enhancing the IP inside the product, to drive quality and in turn further scaled revenue and differentiation.

Who owns the IP?

In most traditional engagements the IP is buried inside a project plan, the advisers' heads and the final output. Clients only provide their own data and receive a result at the end. Productisation achieves the opposite: IP that is implicit becomes explicit, owned by the company who created it.

The underlying technology is secondary to that. A product may use services from a third party, and in many cases this comes with the benefit of lower costs and higher reliability and security. When selecting a technology, the IP that builds the method must be a separate item altogether, which creates clear lines of ownership.

Candid close

The opportunity comes with a clear qualification at the start. If a company cannot identify a methodology which is owned, repeatable and governed, then the argument does not apply yet. Dressing up thin methods in a product erodes the results it can achieve, against largely similar upfront investment.

However, if you can identify those methods that you use today, which are often repeated and underpin engagements, then the market opportunity is already there. Even if that method is not perfected yet into a true, governed product, the most important foundation is present.

The traditional hourly model never disappears. It has a place, where human expertise and review are needed to solve a complex problem that is truly unique. For the other situations, where a model can be applied to similar situations, productisation is what the market is asking for. Products may even create new market opportunities, where they perform some tasks and create the pathway for advisers to perform bespoke work alongside them.

So, market conditions are causing a squeeze in the traditional market. Yet that same squeeze offers those who move early the opportunity to achieve scale and reach markets that were previously out of reach.

Where to start

Gysho specialises in productisation projects, identifying suitable methods and turning them into secure, scalable products. We have turned our expertise into a Productisation Diagnostic tool, which assesses whether your company is ready.

Complete the assessment at productise.gysho.com.

References

IBM Institute for Business Value (2024) Consulting reimagined, powered by AI. In cooperation with Oxford Economics, 18 October. Survey of 400 C-level executives across 14 industries and 6 countries. Available at: ibm.com.
IDC (2025) IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Services 2026 Predictions. Available at: idc.com.
Boston Consulting Group (2026) The $200 Billion Agentic AI Opportunity for Tech Service Providers, 20 February. Available at: bcg.com.