Consulting and Services – Evolving Business Models in the AI Era

Ninety-seven percent of B2B buyers now use AI search as part of how they evaluate solutions. That single shift is quietly rewriting the economics of every service business built on selling expertise by the hour.In this episode, Jon Erickson, a veteran Forrester analyst, joins us to unpack what AI actually changes for consultancies, agencies, and professional services firms, and what it does not. The short version: AI compresses the cost of producing insight, but it raises the premium on trust. Clients can generate an answer in seconds. What they still cannot generate is confidence that the answer is right, defensible, and grounded in data they believe.Jon and I get into the harder questions most firms are avoiding. If AI is a force multiplier, what happens to a business model priced on effort? Where does a consultancy add value once the analysis is commoditized? And why do the firms winning right now treat AI as a continuous experiment rather than a tooling decision?If you lead a services business, or you sell into one, this conversation will give you a clearer read on where the durable value sits.