Consulting Magazine has named the faculty for its 2025 Best Firms to Work For: Industry Series program, set for Sept. 11 at the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk. Titled “Profit, Process & the Power of AI: Unlocking Operational Precision in Consulting,” the two-hour program is tailored for firm leadership and takes place prior to the Best Firms to Work For awards dinner and rankings reveal.
Across the program, speakers will address how consulting firms can integrate AI into operations to protect margins and drive growth; unify pilot efforts into a cohesive strategy; bridge skill gaps and streamline workflows; establish ethical guardrails; and develop pricing models for AI-enabled services.
The first featured session, “The Future of Consulting: Operational Excellence Meets AI-Driven Growth,” will be delivered by Robert Ong, founder and CEO of Moonnox. Ong will look at how the consulting industry can avoid the same AI integration mistakes it solves for clients and reveal how firms can implement an AI operating system to stitch individual tools into a growing collective intelligence, preserving their unique value while delivering true operational precision.
The second featured session, “Innovative Profit Models for a Digital Consulting Era,” will be delivered by Michael Valocchi, senior client solutions advisor at Toptal. Valocchi will how the industry can leverage AI as a force multiplier to reinvent business models, drive profit-boosting process transformations, and build platform-driven solutions for sustainable value.
The program will conclude with a panel discussion, “Closing the Loop: Industry Leaders’ Perspectives on Consulting’s AI Future,” moderated by Consulting Magazine Director Michael Webb, and featuring Jay Laabs, founder and CEO of Spaulding Ridge, and Bill Gallagher, CEO of SEI. Both Spaulding Ridge and SEI are honorees for 2025 Best Firms to Work For. Ong and Valocchi will also join the panel.
In this dynamic discussion about AI’s next frontier in professional services, these award-winning CEOs and industry leaders will examine how they are reimagining consulting operations around new technology – all while preserving human insight, debunking myths, navigating ethical hurdles, and pioneering pricing frameworks to thrive in 2025’s AI-driven landscape.
About Best Firms to Work For
Based on employee satisfaction, Best Firms to Work For is the industry’s most comprehensive assessment of workplace experience for consulting professionals. Since 2000, the program has evaluated thousands of individual surveys from consultants at more than 150 U.S. firms, analyzing quantifiable data, programmatic practices, employee engagement and other indicators of high-performing work environments.
Winning firms are ranked by size classifications, based on the number of billable professionals: Boutique (20–50); Small: (51–249); Midsize: (250–999); Large (1,000+). View this year’s honorees here.
Rankings are derived from consultant responses across six dimensions of satisfaction: culture, career development, work/life balance.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.