AI Strategy Consulting 101: How Consultants Help Organizations Adopt AI

Key takeaways

• Artificial intelligence (AI) strategy consulting identifies how AI can help businesses achieve their goals by implementing, monitoring, and updating AI solutions.

• The AI strategy market size was valued at $11.07 billion in 2025, with a projected value of $90.99 billion by 2035, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.4 percent [1].

• Various well-regarded companies, such as Deloitte and McKinsey, offer AI strategy consulting, offering both job opportunities for aspiring AI consultants and services for interested businesses.

An AI strategy consultant collaborates with internal stakeholders to assess an organization’s current AI use and develop a roadmap recommending AI solutions that help the organization achieve its goals. Learn more about AI strategy consulting, including what it is and how it supports AI adoption across industries.

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What is AI strategy consulting?

1. Assess AI maturity and opportunities

AI strategy consulting helps organizations identify how to operationalize AI to achieve measurable business goals. As an AI strategy consultant, you work alongside business and technology leaders to develop a customized roadmap that recommends the deployment of AI tools to align with their business needs.

2. Build an AI roadmap with milestones

AI strategy consulting services follow a multi-step process to ensure organizations use AI responsibly and sustainably while delivering measurable business value. The process begins by identifying the organization’s greatest AI opportunities and establishing where AI will have the most significant impact.

Additionally, this analysis considers the organization’s AI maturity, its readiness for broader AI use, and AI literacy across the company. For example, an AI strategic analysis for a health care facility may identify that automation tools can help streamline routine tasks such as note-taking and appointment scheduling, freeing up physicians and administrators for more critical, patient-facing tasks.

3. Implement off-the-shelf tools (e.g. Copilot, ChatGPT Enterprise)

AI strategy consulting services include establishing the organization’s AI strategy, or roadmap, that outlines the AI tools to deploy and the milestones needed to successfully implement new AI initiatives. The early implementation phase typically involves incorporating existing AI initiatives, such as ChatGPT Enterprise or Microsoft Copilot, into a business’s workflow to enhance productivity and generate employee buy-in. For instance, administrative employees could use ChatGPT to synthesize meeting minutes or transcripts to quickly generate a list of action items to streamline their workflow. This simple task helps familiarize them with basic AI tools.

4. Develop custom models for long-term needs

A robust AI strategy, however, goes beyond implementing these off-the-shelf AI tools. It also considers long-term AI solutions, including those developed specifically for the organization. This phase of the process may involve developing custom machine learning models trained on proprietary data.

Potential AI solutions, depending on the organization’s needs, include natural language processing (NLP) models, such as voice assistants and chatbots, or computer vision models that scan production lines or inventory to accelerate workflows or rapidly detect defects. Consider, for example, a manufacturing company that uses a computer vision AI model to inspect products throughout the manufacturing process, ensuring each product meets quality standards and has the correct labels. This process may free up workers to focus on more creative tasks on the production line.

5. Monitor, retrain, and scale solutions.

Since AI is ever-evolving, AI strategy consulting is an ongoing process. As an AI strategy consultant, you may monitor AI systems after their launch, ensuring optimal performance, identifying when model retraining is necessary, and extending AI solutions as organizational needs and goals change.

Read more: Generative AI Impact on Business

AI strategy consulting market size

As AI use grows, so does the need for AI strategy consultants. According to Future Market Research, the AI consulting market was valued at $11.07 billion in 2025, with growth on the horizon [1]. The projected CAGR of the market between 2025 and 2035 is 23.4 percent, with the market reaching an estimated value of $90.99 billion by 2035 [1].

What is an AI strategy consultant?

An AI strategy consultant oversees the development of an organization’s AI strategy, identifying ways to use AI to achieve business goals. AI strategy consultants collaborate with internal stakeholders to evaluate the business’s current AI use, build an AI roadmap, and recommend and implement AI-driven solutions.

What does an AI strategy consultant do?

AI strategy consultants are typically external professionals who help an organization enhance its AI strategy. To achieve this goal as an AI strategy consultant, you may complete the following tasks:

• Evaluate a company’s data availability, quality, and infrastructure to inform AI strategy development

• Work with key stakeholders to define success metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) for AI use

• Develop an AI roadmap that defines optimal use cases for AI to help achieve company goals

• Establish a data governance strategy to ensure the organization uses AI responsibly, defining how the organization will use AI and the purpose and objectives of AI initiatives

• Collaborate with data engineers, software developers, and information technology (IT) professionals to implement new AI models company-wide

• Support company leaders and employees as new AI solutions are introduced, highlighting best practices and overseeing change management through employee training

• Monitor, maintain, and scale AI solutions as organizational needs evolve

Top skills for this role

To prepare for a career as an AI strategy consultant, you’ll develop skills to excel in the role, such as problem-solving and AI tools expertise. You can refine the following skills through a combination of education and hands-on experience:

• Knowledge of AI tools and platforms: A solid understanding of various AI tools to help organizations choose the best ones to meet their goals

• Data literacy: The ability to read, analyze, and interpret raw data and use it to communicate information to stakeholders and make decisions about an organization’s AI strategy

• Business acumen: A refined understanding of how the organization operates and how AI solutions may help optimize efficiency, enhance productivity, boost revenue, or cut costs

• Problem-solving: The ability to implement creative solutions to develop an organization’s AI strategy

• Communication: The ability to explain complex AI concepts to stakeholders in an easy-to-understand manner using non-technical terminology

How does AI strategy consulting support AI adoption?

AI strategy consulting supports AI adoption by identifying AI tools that an organization can use to achieve its business goals. As an AI strategy consultant, you can connect AI use with tangible results to illustrate the effectiveness of recommended models. Developing specific AI use cases that define how to use AI solutions to achieve business goals can encourage adoption of this technology.

Consider these use-case examples that can highlight the measurable impact of AI for your clients and encourage its adoption:

• Marketing: AI models can develop targeted marketing campaigns, including ads, videos, and emails, for specific audiences to create a more personalized customer experience.

• Customer service: AI-powered chatbots can provide around-the-clock answers to common customer service questions, enabling more efficient service.

• Retail: Retailers can use dynamic pricing AI models to adjust pricing and promotions to maximize revenue and stay ahead of competitors.

• Finance: Financial institutions can rely on agentic AI to streamline fraud protection, which better protects customers.

• Professional development: AI models can identify skills gaps in the workforce and provide personalized course or training recommendations to enhance worker skill sets.

• Creative tasks: AI models can develop marketing copy or automate video editing, allowing creative professionals to focus on higher-value work.

• Logistics: Using AI, companies can streamline deliveries by optimizing delivery routes or tracking warehouse inventory.

What are the top AI strategy consulting firms?

Whether you’re looking for work as an AI strategy consultant or would like to use the services of one, explore some of the top US consulting firms:

• Bain and Company: This Boston-based consulting firm partners with clients in financial services, telecommunications and media, retail, health care, and other industries to build chatbots and intelligent assistants to streamline operations, among other AI services.

• Deloitte: Deloitte has offices across the US and the world, with its AI strategy consulting services focused on three core capabilities: data, analytics, and AI strategy development; data, analytics, and AI transformation orchestration; and data, analytics, and AI operating model design.

• QuantumBlack: QuantumBlack, McKinsey’s AI division, has locations throughout the US and the world. QuantumBlack Labs is the company’s hub for AI innovation, inspiring the creation of AI proprietary tools, open-source projects, and research and development projects.

• Boston Consulting Group: With offices throughout the US and the world, Boston Consulting Group focuses on expanding clients’ AI use by deploying GenAI in everyday tools, reshaping critical functions, and inventing new business models.

• Accenture: Like other AI consulting firms, Accenture has offices throughout the US and beyond. Its AI strategy team helps clients build innovative products and services using AI, using data-driven insights to optimize efficiency and build trust with customers.

How much does an AI strategy consultant make?

According to Glassdoor, an AI strategy consultant earns a median total pay of $233,000 annually [2]. This figure includes base salary and additional pay, which may represent profit-sharing, commissions, bonuses, or other compensation.

What is an AI strategy consulting career path?

The path to becoming an AI strategy consultant requires a combination of education, certifications, and experience. Learn more about how to prepare for this role.

Earn your degree.

Many AI consultants earn a bachelor’s degree in computer science, data science, or related fields. Or, you may choose to pursue a master’s degree or doctoral degree in a field such as AI or machine learning. According to Franklin University, about 34 percent of job postings for AI consultants require a bachelor’s degree, compared to 28 percent requiring a PhD or professional degree and 24 percent requiring a master’s degree [3].

Explore other credentials.

Enhance your AI education outside of traditional degree programs by earning AI credentials through certification and certificate programs. Consider programs designed to enhance your AI fluency and strategic vision. For example, the IBM AI Developer Professional Certificate on Coursera introduces you to fundamental AI concepts and strategies to build GenAI-powered applications.

Certifications include the Certified Artificial Intelligence Consultant (CAIC), offered through the United States Artificial Intelligence Institute (USAII), which gives you the opportunity to learn how to develop approaches, models, and workflows for AI infrastructure. The Microsoft Certified: AI Business Professional certification validates your knowledge of AI fundamentals, prompt generation, and AI business content development.

Additionally, you can find online certificate programs in AI strategy through established universities. In these programs, you’ll have the opportunity to learn about how AI can automate tasks and how you can implement it to reshape business strategy.

Work with various AI tools and platforms.

Build your expertise using various AI solutions and track your results. You can develop a portfolio to showcase your experience, highlighting AI projects you’ve built, business problems you’ve solved, and specific outcomes you’ve helped your employer or client achieve. If you’re just starting out, look for open source projects to work on using sites like GitHub to build your experience.

Discover free AI resources for your career

Join us on Career Chat, where you can stay up-to-date on emerging industry trends. You can also explore the following resources to learn more about AI:

• Review key terms: Artificial Intelligence Glossary: Learn AI Vocabulary

• Learn from an expert: The AI Advantage: 9 Questions with UC Davis AI Instructor Sadie St. Lawrence

• Read an insider story: Meet the Video Game Designer Who’s Leveling Up with AI

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