The global management consulting industry continues to reflect the changing business landscape. Companies in every industry are facing increasingly complex challenges, and they require agile, real-time solutions. Rapid technology advancements, including artificial intelligence (or AI) and data-driven decision-making, fuel these innovative approaches.

Today, companies seeking resolution of specific problems often hire specialized consultants to take leadership roles. Increased consultant-client collaborations are leading to creative solutions and beneficial long-term partnerships.

Executive consultant Kevin Modany currently serves as an executive for a management consulting firm's client. As a former CEO with wide-ranging business expertise, he embraces new technologies while emphasizing the importance of the human element. Here, Kevin Modany highlights three significant management consulting advancements set for larger industry adoption.

Highly Adaptable Artificial Intelligence

In 2023, companies in many industries are using new technologies to drive increased operating efficiencies and cost savings. Business-savvy management consulting clients are increasingly aware of this trend. Clients in multiple industries want to work with consultants who have demonstrated technological expertise. Today, artificial intelligence is at the forefront of these conversations.

How Artificial Intelligence is Changing the Game

Artificial intelligence (or AI) is one of the biggest technology advancements of the last century. With a rapidly growing list of applications, AI-enabled tools can help to provide more value to consulting clients. More efficient operations can enable better goal achievement and drive each company's growth.  

5 Industries That Are Prime AI Candidates

Management consultants in varied disciplines can benefit from targeted AI use. Investing in AI solutions that match the client's industry and consulting specialty enables optimal value creation and drives a competitive advantage. These data-dependent fields will see the largest impact:

• Entertainment and Media Consulting

• Financial and Risk Management Consulting

• Healthcare and Life Sciences Consulting

• Information Technology Consulting

• Operations and Supply Chain Consulting

Spotlight on AI-Enabled Task Automation

Historically, businesses in many industries relied on time-consuming manual recordkeeping that was often riddled with errors. In addition, employees performing mundane or repetitive tasks comprised a large portion of companies' labor costs. Taken together, these inefficient operations significantly reduced overall efficiencies and elevated operating expenses. In turn, this negatively impacted each company's bottom line.

Today, AI-driven automation is changing the playing field for the better.  To illustrate, targeted work platforms integrate robotic process automation with smart workflows. This drives the automation of simple or repetitive employee tasks.

In turn, labor costs are reduced, enabling employees to focus on higher-level projects. This should drive an overall productivity increase. This example is also applicable to management consultants' tasks.

AI Algorithms Cannot Replace Consultants

Although AI-driven efficiencies offer many benefits, human direction is still an essential part of the equation. Fully automated services can contain biased or inaccurate results, subpar customization quality, and poor transparency. As a result, clients can lose trust in the consulting firm. Highly skilled management consultants should always drive the consulting strategy and implementation. 

Growth of Specialized Consultants

Companies that face specialized challenges need experts who understand the industry, relevant technologies, and applicable regulations. However, the business may lack employees with targeted skill sets who can resolve these daunting challenges. To fill this vacuum, many management consulting firms have recently begun to offer specialized consulting services. Executive consultant Kevin Modany presents a snapshot of five in-demand consulting specialties.

Technology Consulting

Many firms have adopted a digitization-focused approach to their operations. In addition, companies continue to integrate AI, machine learning (a type of AI), and automation into their operations. Data scientists and business analysts experienced in these disciplines will likely see numerous consulting opportunities.

Data Analytics and Predictive Analytics

Specifically, data analytics consultants use technology to process huge data sets at lightning-fast speed. By designing advanced data analytics models and using data visualization tools, these technology specialists can devise solutions that leverage data to gain a competitive advantage. Predictive analytics is a subspecialty that pinpoints trends, foresees market changes, and revises business strategies for optimal results.

Data-Driven Decision-Making Protocol

Management consultants also drive a firm's switch to a data-driven decision-making protocol. Executive consultant Kevin Modany, a longtime advocate of this methodology, details several relevant factors a CEO should consider.

Examples of relevant data include national or regional sales figures and technology-related production efficiencies. Marketing campaign results and competitors' product sales numbers can also be useful. Each industry will have additional data that should factor into each management decision.

Financial Consulting

Financial consultants have extensive expertise with diverse financial products, industry compliance requirements, risk exposures, and related management strategies. These skilled professionals are well-positioned to guide banks and other financial institutions through evolving market challenges and regulatory constraints.

Specifically, financial consultants assist clients in devising risk management strategies that minimize emerging threats. Consultants also help to enhance their clients' investment portfolios. Financial consultants integrate blockchain and other technologies to execute transparent, secure transactions. Finally, consultants help to optimize financial reporting procedures, resulting in better data utilization for clients.

Healthcare Consulting

The healthcare industry continues its large-scale transformation. Evolving patient demographics, medical and technological advancements, and shifting regulatory ecosystems collectively present healthcare providers and service industries with complex challenges. Healthcare consultants demonstrate an intimate understanding of these issues, enabling them to devise optimal solutions for clients.

To illustrate, healthcare consultants have deep expertise in healthcare regulations such as the Affordable Care Act (or ACA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (or HIPAA). Healthcare consultants can help client companies comply with these complex regulations while enhancing patient care and improving operations. Next, healthcare consultants can help clients switch to an efficient electronic health records (or EHR) infrastructure.

Finally, consultants can guide clients' adoption of telemedicine as a treatment modality. On the radar for several years, this virtual technology saw wide expansion during the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, telemedicine continues to be a treatment lifeline for patients with limited mobility or in rural, underserved areas.

Cybersecurity Consulting

Cybersecurity consultants are elite computer security professionals who help shield companies' computer systems and other digital assets from widely prevalent cybersecurity threats. Consultants identify system vulnerabilities and design bold security strategies to mitigate risks. Cybersecurity consultants often adopt multiple layers of defense to protect sensitive data and thwart potential incursions.

To illustrate, cybersecurity consultants often work to protect their clients against computer viruses, malware, and ransomware. Consultants also work in the competitive intelligence realm, seeking to prevent other industry firms from obtaining a client's proprietary information.

Increased Consultant-Client Collaborations

Historically, management consultants typically worked solo, conducting due diligence before offering targeted solutions and recommendations to their clients. Today, however, consultants are increasingly adopting a collaborative approach.  

Management consultants, including executive consultants such as Kevin Modany, team up with clients and other industry partners. Together, they brainstorm solutions to often complex challenges.

This high-level collaboration often produces a synergistic model that uses everyone's talents to craft a "win-win" strategy. This rewarding exercise fosters mutually beneficial (and often longer-term) consultant-client relationships.

Kevin Modany Thrives on Productive Collaborations

In Kevin Modany's current role, he frequently interacts with executive team members, company employees, external stakeholders, and investors. With a "glass half-full" mindset, Kevin Modany seeks positive resolutions to challenges while treating everyone involved with respect.

In this constructive leadership setting, Kevin Modany believes that optimal solutions can emerge. He emphasizes transparency during every step of the process.

"The objective of a leader should be to get the people motivated, that they want to run through a wall for you. You get them to be motivated to want to work with you and accomplish objectives. A component of that is being honest and transparent and truthful," Kevin Modany stated.

Management Consulting (and Executive Consulting) Continue to Evolve

As 2023 winds down, the management consulting industry continues to integrate new technological applications and management protocols. Executive consultant Kevin Modany relishes the opportunity to apply his demonstrated leadership expertise in his current role and beyond.