AI in the Consulting Industry In this turbulent era, even job titles are not immune to change.
As first reported, Deloitte is preparing to overhaul its U.S. employee positions as part of a sweeping “modernization” effort. business insider. According to an internal presentation seen by BI, the company is moving away from a workforce structure originally designed for a “traditional consulting profile,” a model that is now considered outdated.
Moe Reynolds, chief human resources officer at Deloitte US, hosted the meeting where these changes were announced. Deloitte’s 2025 U.S. Facts and Figures page says that while the presentation focused on the consulting division, the changes are company-wide and will affect all of the company’s U.S. divisions, which have about 181,500 employees.
According to the presentation, under this new system, consultants are expected to look different from the path they are used to: analyst, consultant, manager. These roles will be replaced with more specific titles, including references to “job family” and “subfamily.” After the change, it is expected that the title of “Senior Consultant” will be changed to “Software Engineer III,” “Senior Project Management Consultant,” or “Senior Consultant for Functional Transformation.”
A new leadership class, simply named “Leaders,” joins the senior ranks of Partners, Principals, and Managing Directors. Additionally, internally, employees are assigned alphanumeric levels, such as L45 for current senior consultants and L55 for managers. However, the presentation emphasized that the day-to-day work, leadership and the company’s “compensation philosophy” will all remain the same.
The changing landscape of consulting work
The move, which is due to come into effect on June 1, 2026, reflects changes proposed as part of the debate on the future of consulting in the age of AI. For decades, consulting firms have relied on a pyramid model for employees, with entry-level positions filled with junior consultants handling time-consuming tasks such as research, modeling, and data analysis, overseen by a hierarchy of senior consultants and managing directors. AI is reshaping the way some junior consultants approach their work, which could cause the pyramid model to collapse.
A Deloitte spokesperson did not immediately respond. luck’Request for comments.
Last September, Deloitte committed $3 billion to generative AI development through fiscal year 2030. The company also launched Zora AI, an Nvidia-powered agent AI model to “automate complex business processes, eliminate data silos, and improve employee productivity.”
The move toward an agency workforce is also underway at other Big Four companies. McKinsey & Company CEO Bob Sternfels recently told Harvard Business Review’s Ideacast that the company’s number of AI agents has increased by more than 500% in just 18 months, to about 20,000 agents. Sternfels predicts that soon every employee will be supported by one or more agents, creating a workforce that is “both human and agentic.” Boston Consulting Group uses Deckster to create presentation materials in minutes. And in 2023, Bain announced a global partnership with OpenAI.
Other companies are also working heavily on AI. EY is betting $1.4 billion on AI-based strategies over five years, KPMG is betting $2 billion on AI, and Accenture is betting $3 billion on building data and AI practices.
AI is forcing companies to reevaluate their professional identities, and the consulting industry is facing an existential crisis. As for Deloitte, an internal presentation said the proposed changes are aimed at “improving market relevance and clarity” in an increasingly automated landscape.
