Expert Insights

Key takeaways from the 2026 Best Firms to Work For Professional Series, held Sept. 17 with Consulting Magazine Director Michael Webb, John Norkus of ChiefPricingOfficer.com, Tom Andreesen of Protiviti and Gordon G. Andrew of Highlander.

This week Riley and Smith reach the payoff. As AI drives the cost of competent work toward zero, they argue, the value shifts to what is hardest to automate and easiest to underrate: judgment, creativity, the sense to read a situation and the nerve to stand behind a call. Not, it turns out, the soft part of the job at all.

Editor's Note: Part II of Consulting Magazine's Consulting in the Age of AI series shows that getting people to use AI is the easy part. Building the working habits that keep judgment in the room is the leadership task.

Sage sponsored webcast looks at how consulting firms can protect margins, prove value, and evolve their operating models for an AI-driven economy.

As AI makes plausible answers effortless to produce, the hard work becomes knowing whether they are right. Adam Riley and Dr. David Smith's article diagnoses the judgment gap that opens when consultants mistake fluency for thinking.

Join this crucial webcast to learn where the real bottlenecks hide in your operations—from pitches and pricing to client management and finance.