Major consulting firms have invested heavily in positioning themselves as indispensable partners in the artificial intelligence boom, but many clients say the results so far have fallen short of the hype, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Over the past three years, companies such as Deloitte, PwC, McKinsey, Bain, EY and KPMG pledged billions toward AI-related services and launched aggressive campaigns to capture corporate spending. Early marketing pitches promised transformative outcomes, yet executives across industries report that many engagements failed to scale beyond pilot projects.
Executives at Merck (MRK) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) said consultants often lacked more AI expertise than in-house teams and sometimes “learned on the client’s dime.” Bristol-Myers even ended a yearlong consulting contract to develop generative AI tools, choosing to pursue the project internally. At AmeriSave Mortgage, technology chief Magesh Sarma said the firms “overpromised” and delivered little more than expensive reports.
Despite these frustrations, spending continues to rise: Gartner (NYSE:IT) estimates global AI-related consulting reached $3.75 billion in 2024, up from $1.34 billion the year before. Some industry analysts believe the firms’ value will grow in four to five years, once AI use cases are more standardized and scalable.
Consultants counter that they are helping clients identify viable projects, share best practices across industries, and provide extra capacity. Accenture (ANC) recently reported $100 million in new AI bookings in a single quarter, and KPMG said its U.S. pipeline of AI advisory projects nearly tripled in two years.
Still, critics argue that large firms were slow to recruit talent with real AI expertise, leaving them vulnerable. Former KPMG partner Michael Mische put it bluntly: the consulting sector is “not leading AI. It’s behind AI,” the Journal reported.
Industry observers say the acid test will be whether generative AI can be deployed at scale to drive cost savings and new revenue. Until then, consultants face skepticism from clients who remain unconvinced they can turn bold promises into practical results.