The consulting pyramid appears to have discovered gravity.

For a decade, the model was beautifully simple. Hire armies of clever generalists, put them in airport lounges, sell consensus back to executives at partner rates, then call the PDF proprietary.

Now the pyramid has a leak.

McKinsey has reportedly dropped from more than 45,000 people to around 40,000. Bain is cutting quietly. Accenture has gone full industrial machine, trimming generalists while hiring into AI. BCG is the exception, but even there, the growth story is increasingly India led. Same logo. Different cost base. Very tasteful.

The lesson for private equity is painfully obvious, so naturally it will be ignored in several investment committee meetings.

The old consulting product was labour arbitrage dressed up as insight.

The new product has to be operating leverage.

Fewer smart people. Better data. More automation. Faster decisions. Actual implementation.

Portfolio companies do not need another 90 page market scan explaining that customers like convenience and competitors use Google. They need pricing fixed, CRM working, attribution cleaned up, conversion improved, and someone accountable for EBITDA rather than “workstreams”.

AI is not killing consulting.

It is killing the bit of consulting that was mostly graduate labour, recycled slides and expensive confidence.

Which, unfortunately, was quite a lot of it.