The Next Wave of Consulting: From Digital Transformation to AI

As a Project Manager in the Professional Services department and the son of a UI/UX consulting agency founder in Korea, I have always been fascinated by the evolution of consulting services. Currently, my role involves advising customers on their data strategy around Starburst projects and executing these strategies in collaboration with engineers. Previously, when I assisted my mother’s company, I focused on helping enterprises navigate digital transitions by designing customer-centric interfaces. Over the past two to three decades, digital transformation has fueled the rapid growth of enterprise consulting, particularly in technical fields.

Now, as we enter the AI era, my family and I often reflect on what the future holds for consulting services. What assets have we built? What waves of change are on the horizon? How can we navigate these shifts effectively? To answer these questions, we’ve examined the past, assessed the present, and envisioned the future of the consulting industry.

The Past: Digital Transformation

When my mother founded her consulting agency in the 1990s, computers were just beginning to integrate into everyday life. Her early work involved designing websites for major companies. Back then, websites were functional but lacked user-friendly designs. My father, a software engineer, encouraged my mother, who was then an art teacher, to improve the usability of his programs. She realized that creating an effective interface went beyond aesthetics—it required designing intuitive user journeys. For example, features as simple as confirmation pop-ups before deleting important files were innovations at the time.

Her first projects primarily served banks, such as Hana Bank, where she helped design one of their early websites. This success led to more projects, and her business grew alongside the digital era, culminating in the smartphone revolution.

The Present: The App Era

Since the 2010s, apps have dominated digital consumption, significantly outpacing the earlier computer age. The demand for mobile-friendly content—videos, music, and communication tools—has driven the need for robust data infrastructures. Companies like Facebook developed their own tools, such as the query engine Presto, now known as Trino, which is central to my current work at Starburst.

This era has been defined by the complexity of data management. As data volumes grew, tools like Oracle, Snowflake, and Teradata became essential for processing and analyzing information efficiently. Cloud computing further expanded data storage and processing capabilities, enabling innovations like live content streaming. Traditional spreadsheets simply couldn’t keep up with these demands.

This growing complexity spurred the rise of enterprise software and professional services teams, with technical consultants like Accenture and similar organizations thriving by solving increasingly intricate challenges for businesses.

The Future: The AI Era

As we transition into the AI age, leaders like OpenAI and Databricks are paving the way, representing both customer-facing solutions and backend infrastructure. Meanwhile, companies like NVIDIA and Palantir dominate their respective AI domains. Amid this evolution, what role will technical consulting play?

We foresee two key opportunities:

1. Internal Data Platforms Mega-corporations like Walmart and CapitalOne are already building internal data marketplaces for their partners. As AI accelerates data generation exponentially, companies will be compelled to monetize their data to sustain expensive infrastructure. Designing profitable internal data platforms will become a critical area for technical consulting, requiring expertise in architecture, monetization strategies, and data management.
2. Optimizing Data Collection AI thrives on high-quality data, and the scale of data collection will grow exponentially. The challenge lies in strategically improving data quality at the source. This involves understanding user behavior, identifying high-value data, and collaborating with engineers to build seamless end-to-end data pipelines. This hybrid approach—melding behavioral insights with technical expertise—represents a promising niche for consulting services.

Closing Thoughts

Reflecting on the journey from digital transformation to the app age, we are now poised to embrace the AI era. The future likely holds immense potential for consulting in two areas: (1) enabling enterprise data monetization and (2) optimizing data ingestion strategies.

What are your thoughts on this vision? Are there additional gaps or opportunities where the consulting industry could flourish? Happy to hear your thoughts!