You may be wondering whether consulting is still the smart first job it used to be.
AI can research faster. Build first drafts faster. Analyze data faster. Even create a decent-looking slide before you finish your coffee.
So why would McKinsey, BCG, Bain, or anyone else still need a 22-year-old analyst?
Because the analyst job is not disappearing in one piece.
It is being pulled apart.
The work AI removes may be the work you were least excited about
Imagine your first project.
A manager asks you to research a market, clean a dataset, pull competitor information, and build the first version of a page for tomorrow's client meeting.
Five years ago, much more of that work had to start manually.
Now some of it can begin with AI.
That sounds threatening until you notice what happens next.
Someone still has to decide which sources are believable, what the numbers actually imply, what belongs on the slide, and whether the recommendation survives a partner asking, “So what?”
Faster output creates a new bottleneck.
Judgment.
The junior consultant who simply produces information becomes easier to replace. The junior consultant who can interrogate information, structure ambiguity, and turn it into a defensible recommendation becomes more valuable.
If you are weighing the career itself, the deeper question is not just whether consulting survives AI. It is whether the remaining work is work you actually want to do. Is Consulting Worth It After College?
But your first two years may feel different from the version alumni describe
Ask a consultant who joined ten years ago about their analyst years and you may hear stories about endless manual research, formatting decks at 2 a.m., and rebuilding analyses from scratch.
Some of that remains.
Some of it probably should not.
The interesting shift is what happens when basic production gets cheaper.
| What you might expect | What changes with AI | What that means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Research proves you are useful | Research gets faster | Synthesis becomes the differentiator |
| Excel speed makes you stand out | More analysis gets assisted | Knowing what to calculate matters more |
| Good slides show technical skill | First drafts get easier | The storyline becomes harder to fake |
| Junior means “execute” | Execution compresses | You may face judgment calls earlier |
That last row matters.
Automation can remove the training wheels too.
If an AI tool gives you a first draft in ten minutes, your manager may expect you to spend the next fifty minutes making it better, not celebrating that it exists.
The real risk is not that AI eliminates consulting
The more immediate risk is subtler.
You enter consulting expecting to build a powerful set of transferable skills, then spend two years becoming excellent at tasks that software is rapidly commoditizing.
That is why the question to ask during recruiting is changing.
Not: Does this firm use AI?
Almost every serious consulting firm will.
Ask instead how junior consultants learn structured problem-solving when technology handles more of the first-pass work. Ask what analysts now own earlier. Ask how teams distinguish between AI-assisted output and client-ready thinking.
That tells you much more about the job you are actually joining.
For the deeper technology question, read Will AI Replace Consultants.
So should you still start here?
Consulting can still give a new graduate unusual exposure to industries, senior clients, structured problem-solving, communication, and decisions that would be difficult to see this early somewhere else.
But AI changes the bargain.
The value may no longer come from learning how to produce every piece of analysis yourself.
It may come from learning what deserves analysis in the first place.
That is a harder skill to automate.
And it may become the part of your first job that matters most.