Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman has suggested that most professional, computer-based tasks could be automated within 12 to 18 months, but new research reveals a critical gap: organizations are not prepared for this speed of change. While AI technology is advancing rapidly, consulting firms and other professional services companies are still treating artificial intelligence as a productivity tool rather than a fundamental business transformation, limiting their ability to capture real value .

According to research from Ajuno, a strategy consultancy specializing in AI and critical infrastructure, the barrier to meaningful AI adoption is not technological capability but rather organizational readiness. The study found that 73% of consultants now identify AI as the single biggest shift facing the profession, yet most firms are still in early experimental stages .

Why Is the Timeline Mismatch Creating Risk for Consulting Firms?

Suleyman's 12 to 18-month prediction stands in stark contrast to what leading companies are actually experiencing. Research from Ajuno suggests that organizations seeing meaningful gains from AI are not simply deploying the technology; they are redesigning their entire operating models, governance structures, and accountability frameworks. This transformation is unfolding over a three to five-year horizon, not 12 months .

The pressure to move quickly is mounting. PwC's US leadership recently stated that partners resisting AI "have no place at the firm," capturing the urgency many consulting organizations feel. However, this speed-focused approach carries significant risks. Recent events highlight how quickly things can unravel, such as the widely reported hacking of McKinsey and Company's leading AI platform in March 2026, which leaked 728,000 files and over 46 million chat messages .

"Leading companies deploying AI focus on overhauling operating models and governance, to empower the technology's use by staff," explained Will Barnes, co-founder of Ajuno and co-author of the research.

Will Barnes, Co-founder and Co-author, Ajuno

The research outlines credible failure scenarios that organizations should anticipate as AI becomes embedded in delivery at scale. These include over-reliance on AI eroding human judgment, AI-driven reputational damage through uncontrolled outputs, legal battles through breakdown of accountability in agentic systems, and data breaches triggered by interacting agents .

What Four Pathways Could Reshape Consulting in the AI Age?

Ajuno's research identifies four distinct pathways for how AI may reshape consulting, each with unique strategic questions and risks. Understanding these pathways is essential for firms deciding which direction to pursue .

• Embedded Partners: AI disappears into workflows, quietly shaping analysis, presentations, and decision-making. The key challenge is measuring value and establishing accountability when AI is invisible to clients.
• Avatar Teams: AI becomes visible, with digital consultants joining meetings, interacting with clients, and building trust over time. Firms must address what happens to human consultants when clients develop trust in the AI avatar.
• Autonomous Firms: Clients engage directly with AI consultants, supported by networks of agents delivering work at scale. This creates uncertainty around accountability and responsibility when outcomes are delivered by systems rather than humans.
• Consulting Engines: Consulting firms become "always-on" with consulting evolving into continuous, embedded capability operating like enterprise software. This raises fundamental questions about what a consulting firm is when there are no projects, only persistent systems.

With the majority of AI implementation still considered experimental in nature, most organizations today sit firmly at the "co-pilot" stage, experimenting with tools rather than committing to a direction. However, with investors looking to see returns, the risk is not choosing the wrong path but failing to choose at all .

How to Prepare Your Organization for AI-Driven Transformation

Organizations entering a new financial year must move beyond incremental adoption and make explicit strategic choices about their AI future. The firms that will win are those that act boldly and align strategy, governance, and delivery .

• Rethink Accountability: Establish clear ownership of AI decisions and determine who is responsible for outcomes when systems make recommendations or deliver work autonomously.
• Redesign Operating Models: Optimize how humans and AI work together, moving beyond treating AI as a tool to integrating it into core business processes and decision-making frameworks.
• Reassess Skills and Economics: Determine what consulting capabilities will be replaced by AI, what new skills are needed, and whether your business model will sell effort, outcomes, or systems going forward.
• Build Governance Structures: Establish frameworks to manage risk, ensure accountability, and scale AI deployment with confidence as the technology becomes more embedded in delivery.

Research from McKinsey and Company in late 2025 found that organizations pursuing enterprise-wide AI transformation are more than three times as likely to achieve high performance compared to those taking a piecemeal approach . Those which hesitate face a different future: rising inefficiency, talent loss, and increasing dependence on AI-enabled competitors.

The central finding from Ajuno's research is clear: the barrier to AI adoption is not technology, but rather organizational change. As Suleyman's timeline suggests the capability is nearly here, the real question for consulting firms and other professional services organizations is not whether AI will reshape their industry, but what path they are on for the next one to three years and what they are building for the next five to ten .