Consulting Executives Weigh AI’s Impact on Fees and Junior Roles

Executives at KPMG, Elixirr and EY say AI is speeding some consulting work and adding pressure on fees and junior roles, raising questions about how firms price faster output and train new staff.

Svilena Tzekova, KPMG’s global head of consulting, said clients can now get advice faster than work that once took firms days or months. Clients increasingly seek fees tied to outcomes, she said, even as procurement teams still compare consultancies by assigned headcount and hourly rates. Outcome-based pricing ties a fee to an agreed deliverable or result rather than time spent.

Tzekova said firms must also account for employee expenses, computing power and AI-provider charges based on how much text models process. She said establishing an outcome-based price that works commercially remains difficult.

“We were making quite a lot of money by providing advice. I think that part of our business is literally nonexistent anymore,” Tzekova said.

Emiko Caerlewy-Smith, Elixirr’s head of investor relations, said the firm charges for fixed deliverables and outcomes instead of time and materials. Elixirr said it used 45 internally developed AI tools in 2025 and that proposal-generation work took about 10% of the time previously required. Caerlewy-Smith said preparing the firm’s data for full use by AI models took six months. She also described a project to build an AI-based motor-insurance platform for a global insurer.

AI can handle some tasks that have traditionally introduced junior consultants to the profession, including research, data analysis and presentation preparation. Claire Trachet, founder of advisory firm Trachet, said losing that practice could make it harder for junior staff to develop professional judgment.

EY Global Assurance Innovation and Digital Leader Paul Goodhew said AI could prepare an initial pass of audit checks traditionally done by junior auditors. He also described roles in data delivery, product management, and client technology strategy and risk.

Tzekova said KPMG would not end graduate recruitment, but junior consultants would need to take on more responsibility earlier in their careers. The executives’ comments describe pressure on fees and entry-level work but do not establish an industrywide shift in consulting prices or hiring.