Ushering In A New Era of Consulting
The consulting industry has always been marked by sharp contrasts: the dominance of large global firms with thousands of analysts versus the agility of freelancers and small boutiques. For decades, there have been significant parallels between scale & authority. But AI casts doubt on this assertion; thanks to the massive AI disruption, the barriers to entry have never been lower. Today, boutique consulting firms—even micro-firms of one individual—are redefining what quality of service means and how emerging structures can fit the consulting needs of companies regardless of size.
Recent studies confirm the momentum: by 2025, 80% of management consultants will use generative AI tools in their daily work, with over a third reporting that AI contributes to at least half their processes. Consultants leveraging AI can save on average 3–4 hours per day, shifting time toward higher-value activities such as client engagement and strategy (Consultancy.uk, 2025). McKinsey’s own AI assistant, Lilli, is now used by 72% of its workforce, reducing research and synthesis time by 30% (Harvard Business Review, 2025). But to what extent will this disruption impact traditional giants as well as new players, and in what sense will AI redefine the quality of service for boutique consulting firms?
An Inside on the Luxury Industry
To explore this emerging shift, we interviewed Yann Bozec, former President & CEO of Tapestry/Coach Asia-Pacific. After 17 years scaling Coach’s Asian operations from $100 million to $1.8 billion (excluding Japan) and from $500 million to $2.2 billion (including Japan), he recently launched his own boutique consulting and trading firm focused on luxury.
My ambition is to continue developing teams and brands. There is no better moment: my team is ready to fly on its own, and the market is undergoing an unprecedented revolution linked to AI and neuroscience. Even the biggest firms don’t have more answers or advantages than smaller ones today.
His firm’s model is quite lean: just two client meetings per day, relying on his network and experience to deliver highly personalized advice. His journey perfectly illustrates how individual expertise, reinforced by AI tools, can compete with the massive structures of global firms while delivering more targeted value to clients. His unique experience allows us to cast light on a new era of consulting, completely redefining the core of the quality of service.
AI as the Great Equalizer
AI is enabling a new “solopreneur era.” Quoting investor insights, he points out Sam Altman’s allegation that in the near future ten-person firms could easily be valued in Billions and override more traditional businesses, driven by the combined power of engineers, entrepreneurs, and AI agents.
Global players ironically have a disadvantage. Their teams want to keep their jobs, which slows transformation. New entrants who leapfrog with AI will move much faster.
This aligns with broader industry trends, showcasing that even current leaders in the Luxury & Consulting branches can be subject to a form of path dependency. Boutique consulting firms are expanding their client bases by 15% annually, while traditional firms face stagnation (Business Insider, 2025). Boutique AI consultancies are capturing market share thanks to senior engagement, technical expertise, and rapid time-to-value (Agathon, 2025).
Arguably, the two types of structures have different qualities; a small firm will hardly achieve the level of detail & processes that a giant achieves. However, the proximity to the client as well as the expertise and dedication, remain core strengths of boutique consulting, and its weakness in processes and detail may very well be mitigated using AI. This dynamic shows that AI doesn’t just streamline processes; it reshuffles the industry hierarchy itself, allowing smaller players to claim the same opportunities as industry giants.
Redefining Quality of Service
For Yann Bozec, AI doesn’t diminish service quality—it enhances it.
The best call centers in the world are already robots. They can read micro-signals consistently, without moods. Some people even say they fell in love with their AI agents because of the way they listen, selflessly. That says a lot about the service to come, especially in luxury.
Research supports this. Studies show that when luxury service recommendations lack uniqueness, AI-generated suggestions are accepted as much as—if not more than—human ones (Nova Research, 2025). Yet when clients expect exclusivity, they still prefer the human touch (ScienceDirect, 2025). The balance is clear: AI must augment, not replace, human consultants. In that sense, AI really acts as a Great Equalizer between traditional structures and new entrants, which were in the past unable to achieve this level of service.
Clients are also shifting their definition of value. 65% of businesses using AI prefer consultants who actively participate in implementation over those offering purely strategic advice (Agathon, 2025). This pushes consultants away from theoretical frameworks toward execution-focused, ROI-driven results. In other words, AI doesn’t reduce the human value of consulting; it repositions it, pushing boutique firms to excel at what remains irreplaceable: intuition, experience, and trust-based relationships.
Anxiety, Adaptation, and What’s Ahead
Regarding the anxiety many feel toward AI disruption, he underlines that:
What we live through is frightening. But so was fire for the first humans. Knowledge and experience become obsolete. What remains is the determination to evolve. Tomorrow’s key skills will be: critical thinking, curiosity-driven innovation, and authentic human connection.
This resonates with consultants themselves: 84% now prefer creative and strategic work over routine analysis, which AI automates (Accenture, 2025). For entrepreneurs, AI lowers barriers by enabling rapid prototyping, smaller teams, and value-based pricing—allowing even micro-firms to compete with giants (OrionData, 2025). Despite its frightening and disruptive aspects, the quality of service, work-life balance, and provided value for clients will undoubtedly benefit from AI.
For boutique consulting firms, this means adaptability and experimentation become decisive assets, as they can adopt AI more rapidly and set new service standards.
Coexistence, Not Replacement
The rise of AI does not spell the end of major consulting firms, but it signals a new balance. Boutique firms, once marginal players, are now positioned as agile, hyper-personalized alternatives. As Yann Bozec puts it, “Everything is to be rediscovered. Everything is—and will always be—to be relearned.”
Forbes columnist and council member, Antonio Garrido, wrote, "AI won’t steal your job — But someone who masters AI might". The consulting of tomorrow will not be defined by scale, but by agility, personalization, and the ability to blend human trust with AI-powered insight. In this landscape, boutique firms no longer stand in the shadow of giants—they stand alongside them, reimagining what quality service truly means.
Ultimately, the future of consulting will not be defined by a clash between giants and boutiques, but by a redefinition of complementarities—where AI acts as a catalyst for the rise of smaller, more agile firms providing a new and enhanced vision of service for the consulting industry.