Technology consulting is a research and judgment business. Clients pay for the ability to navigate complex technical decisions without needing to develop deep expertise themselves. AI tools have meaningfully changed how I do this work.
Here’s the honest picture.
Research at Speed
Technology moves fast. A client asking me about the right approach to building a mobile app, or whether to use a particular cloud service, or how to integrate with a specific ERP — they need current, accurate information.
Research that used to take hours now takes significantly less time with AI assistance. Not because AI knows everything, but because:
- Initial orientation to an unfamiliar technology or API happens in minutes
- Literature review and option identification is faster
- Comparing documented capabilities of different tools is faster
The part that doesn’t accelerate: verification. I verify everything important against primary sources. AI summarizes and orients; official documentation confirms.
Better Analysis Products
Clients benefit when my analysis is:
- Structured clearly
- Covers the relevant dimensions (cost, complexity, risk, fit)
- Honest about uncertainty
- Actionable
AI assistance helps me produce better-structured analysis documents in less time. I do the judgment work; AI helps me express it clearly and completely.
For technology selection analyses — “which tool is right for this problem?” — I use AI to help organize the comparison framework and populate the known dimensions. The recommendation itself comes from my judgment of what’s right for the specific client.
Scenario Analysis
One of the most valuable consulting contributions is helping clients think through scenarios: “what happens if we go this direction versus that direction?”
AI is useful for generating comprehensive lists of scenarios to consider — things that might go wrong, dependencies that might affect the decision, downstream effects of a choice. I use AI to stress-test my analysis, looking for gaps.
This doesn’t mean AI makes the analysis. It means AI is a useful partner for making sure I haven’t missed significant dimensions.
Where Consulting Judgment Still Lives
AI tools handle research and documentation well. The hard parts of technology consulting remain human:
Understanding your specific situation. General technology knowledge doesn’t tell me what you should do. Understanding your team, your constraints, your risk tolerance, and your goals does. This comes from conversation and relationship, not AI.
The recommendation itself. Telling a client “don’t do that, do this instead” — and being confident enough in that recommendation to back it — requires judgment formed over years of seeing what works in production. AI can inform this but can’t replace it.
Honest assessments of difficult situations. Sometimes the technology isn’t the problem; it’s the team, the process, or the expectations. Saying this clearly and constructively requires the trust that comes from human relationship, not AI output.
Long-term partnership. The most valuable technology consulting relationships are ongoing. As your business evolves, technology needs evolve. Having a trusted advisor who knows your history and your goals is about relationship, not research.
A Practical Example
A manufacturing client recently asked me to help evaluate whether to build a custom inventory management system or implement a commercial package.
The research phase: AI helped me quickly identify the major commercial options in their category, their typical pricing and implementation requirements, and the key differentiators. Half a day instead of a day and a half.
The analysis phase: I structured the build vs. buy analysis with AI help, covering total cost of ownership, customization requirements, integration complexity, and maintenance burden.
The recommendation: mine. Based on my knowledge of their specific situation, their IT capacity, and the degree to which their processes were non-standard. The AI doesn’t know their business.
The recommendation was to build a targeted custom solution for their core operations and integrate with their existing ERP rather than replace it. That recommendation came from experience and judgment, not from research output.
What Clients Get
Working with me on technology consulting, you get:
- Faster research and more current information
- More structured analysis with less wait time
- The same judgment and experience behind every recommendation
- Direct access to the person doing the work
Facing a technology decision that has significant business implications? Let’s schedule a consulting conversation.