AI is a positive for consulting, but West Monroe's free tool still worries me. 10 July 2026 Consulting.us AI will have a positive impact on the consulting industry, but giving away free AI-produced work is the wrong approach. It risks undermining and eroding consultants' true value, crowding out the tangible, long-term support they are known for with mass-produced, surface-level strategy documents, writes Sam Shar, CEO of enterprise digital transformation firm Trend-Setters Consulting. West Monroe, a top-50 consulting firm, has started handing out AI-produced strategy documents for free. I'm a strong believer in the power of AI to improve outcomes and results in consulting, but this is sending all the wrong messages to clients. And unless we reverse course, I think the whole industry could face a wave of deep client churn. West Monroe's new AI-powered platform sounds interesting. It lets CEOs and business decision-makers explore complex business questions by drawing on the firm's best practice, experience, and expertise. The idea: a CEO receives an initial report for free, then gets in contact if they want to engage the firm for further work. But the risk is that this accidentally undermines the client's perception of consulting and, more importantly, how it fits into their business. In fact, I can imagine a CEO using West Monroe's tool, liking its outputs, and starting to think: "Well, this is great. This makes consulting look very easy, and I'll just need this in future, not the consulting firm behind it." In other words, it risks positioning consulting, in the eyes of the end client, as little more than devising strategies, arguing for them persuasively, and packaging them into a tidy PowerPoint deck. But to my mind, that was never where the value sat. The real value has always come from being willing to hold people accountable for hard outputs, results, and KPIs. What separates good consulting from the rest, then, is the ability to move the dial: to deliver genuine commercial value, whether by cutting costs or opening new markets to grow revenue. As an industry, we need to do more than produce high-minded, clever strategies that never translate into measurable gains for the client. In practice, that usually means getting consultants embedded inside a client's company, so they can see the problems and challenges directly and, ultimately, ensure any new strategy or tech actually translates into results. I suppose this is the flip side of being focused on results: if you're serious about delivering them, you need people on the ground in the business to do it. This, then, taken together, shines an interesting light on why I think the West Monroe announcement is so dangerous. Through all the flashy marketing and press coverage, it risks positioning consulting as a "blue-sky thinking" strategic exercise, usually cashed out as a long, interesting PowerPoint presentation, rather than working alongside your client, shoulder-to-shoulder to deliver hard results on the front line. And it's all downhill from there: clients are offered AI tools for free to come up with strategies, clients start to think this is what high-quality consulting feels and looks like, and clients start to question the value of having actual, high-value consultancies on their books. Cue high levels of client churn. Now, I'm firmly of the view that AI can do a lot of that strategic thinking and be a powerful tool for consultancies to draw on. But if we let consulting be positioned that way in the client's mind, we shouldn't be surprised when the pointed questions follow: why would I ever use a consulting firm if AI can just do all this for us? And they'd be right to ask. The real irony is that this same example could, instead, show clients what AI could never do: take ownership of KPIs, work alongside clients to execute on difficult transitions, embed talented people in their businesses to own delivery, and ultimately drive strong outcomes that get businesses from A to B. We know this is what clients want from their consultants, because the market trends bear it out. Today, McKinsey is under pressure from clients to tie fees to outcomes rather than advice alone - and that share appears to climb every year. Clients are increasingly demanding real, tangible results, not strategies in isolation. Now, don't get me wrong. I know West Monroe is being savvy here. The idea is that after the decision-maker has used the AI tool and explored a strategy, they'll hopefully engage the firm to implement it. But that still doesn't get around the fundamental problem: we're positioning consulting solely as strategic thinking, and then offering AI to do exactly that. So what's the solution? Part of me is reticent about giving this kind of knowledge away for free at all, though I appreciate the marketing logic. But that's not really the fix. The real answer is to position consulting as a discipline of action-focused execution - turning strategy into results. That's the one thing AI can never do, and I worry West Monroe's latest stunt plays straight into the opposite perception.

West Monroe named "Overall AI Consulting Firm of the Year" in 2026 Artificial Intelligence Breakthrough Awards program. Recognition underscores West Monroe's position as a market leader redefining consulting for the AI era through AI-native delivery and execution CHICAGO - June 30, 2026 - West Monroe, an AI-native global consulting firm, today announced it has been named "Overall AI Consulting Firm of the Year" in the 2026 Artificial Intelligence Breakthrough Awards program. The designation is a culmination of West Monroe's recent investments and innovations to become an AI-native firm, including the launch of WestMonroe.ai, its public platform of AI-powered strategy agents; Clonal(TM), its operational intelligence platform; and an internal AI Store where employees can access 450+ AI solutions. As AI reshapes work across every industry and expectations of professional services partners continue to evolve, West Monroe has transformed itself into an AI-native firm - embedding AI into how it works, delivers, and makes decisions - so it can help clients move faster, learn faster, and create value with greater confidence based on firsthand experience. "We're honored to be recognized by AI Breakthrough as Overall AI Consulting Firm of the Year, especially at a moment when AI is fundamentally reshaping both business and consulting. This award reflects the intentional investments we've made in reimagining consulting through an AI-native lens, experience that directly translates to client advisory and delivery," said Bret Greenstein, Chief AI Officer at West Monroe. The firms that create the most value in the AI era will be those that have transformed their own organizations and can bring that firsthand experience to clients. That's why West Monroe has consistently raised the bar for ourselves, embedding AI across how West Monroe operate, and transforming how West Monroe work so West Monroe can advise from a position of real-world execution, not just theory. Bret Greenstein Chief AI Officer at West Monroe West Monroe has spent the last several years integrating AI into its strategy, delivery, workforce, and operations. These investments and achievements have already earned the firm significant recognition in 2026, including the only Gold Stevie(R) Award for AI-Driven Culture of Innovation across all companies, a Bronze Stevie(R) Award for Chief AI Officer of the Year awarded to Bret Greenstein, a Top Management Consulting Firm of the Year by Forbes in the highly sought after Artificial Intelligence category. "West Monroe possesses everything you need under one roof and puts it into practice," said Steve Johansson, Managing Director at AI Breakthrough. "AI capabilities are evolving weekly and delays quickly erode value. However, companies are realizing that AI transformation is more than deploying LLM tooling or giving employees access to the latest frontier models and a workflow tool. West Monroe is redefining what it means to be an AI services provider, integrating strategy, implementation, workforce enablement, and governance into a single delivery model to enable teams to move at speed and deliver real business impact. Clients benefit from solutions that are proven in practice, not just designed in theory." For nearly a decade, the AI Breakthrough Awards have recognized important advancements in artificial intelligence across categories including agentic AI, generative AI, computer vision, AIOps, robotics, natural language processing, and industry-specific AI applications. AI Breakthrough is a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies, and products in the global artificial intelligence market, and received more than 5,000 nominations from over 20 countries across its 2026 awards program. Winners in this year's program included market leaders such as NVIDIA, Snowflake, Dell Technologies, HP, and Qualcomm. About West Monroe. West Monroe is an AI-native global consulting firm built for today's pace of change. West Monroe combine deep industry expertise with modern technology and business transformation capabilities to help organizations move faster and deliver measurable impact with speed to value and certainty of results through execution excellence. West Monroe don't just talk about what's possible - West Monroe apply AI and technology where it matters most, pairing strategic insights with hands-on execution to help clients move from strategy to results, faster. Clients tell West Monroe West Monroe show up differently. Its employee ownership model fuels an all-in approach grounded in practical execution, measurable impact, and lasting partnership. That commitment has earned recognition from Forbes and Business Insider and made West Monroe one of only 22 companies recognized worldwide for building high-quality careers. Media inquiries. Christina Galoozis Director, Communications & Public Relations 847-302-1762 Shira Cohen Manager, Public Relations 443-841-6879

West Monroe, an AI-native global consulting firm, has launched Clonal, an operational intelligence platform that transforms fragmented operations into real-time business execution. The platform creates a live operations model across systems, workflows and teams, enabling organisations to detect issues earlier and coordinate responses faster. Unlike traditional enterprise platforms that stop at generating insights, Clonal operationalises decision-making across the business. It connects fragmented systems into a shared, real-time view, embeds intelligence into workflows, and runs in customers' own environments without requiring system replacement. The platform can deploy in days and deliver profit-and-loss impact within weeks. West Monroe plans to triple the size of its Clonal team by the end of 2026 to meet growing client demand.