Nowadays it is getting difficult to keep up with the latest advancements in the ever-evolving landscape of technology. As an aspiring digital and strategy consultant, I always try to be updated with everything going on in the world of technology, while at the same time trying to experience those new techs, especially the ones involving GEN AI.
Recently I was selected among 50 students from all the world to attend the BCG Unlimited event, a three-day event dynamic and immersive program sponsored by BCG where I had the chance to deep dive into impactful GEN AI use cases, while simultaneously exploring how BCGers from around the globe are leveraging GEN AI and other emerging technologies to reshape the world.
On one day we were supposed to delve into a use case which left an indelible mark on my perception of GEN AI. The client was a fictional well-known NGO called BCO that helps companies around the world to disclose their sustainability reports. BCO was facing a scalability issue: due to high demand for its service, the company could not keep up with all the clients. The main reason behind it was the lack of a seamless operating model due to the absence of innovative tools that could help to speed up the reporting service. The challenge was to implement a solution that would leverage GEN AI in order to scale up BCO.
Moreover, during these 3 days I had the chance to learn how GEN AI can be extremely helpful in the day-to-day activities of a consultant. Once they are assigned on a business case, consultants have to do a lot of research before delivering a solution to the client. In this phase, GEN AI has become extremely helpful to speed up tasks such as market research, competitive landscape analyses and more.
In conclusion, it is inevitable to envision these new GEN AI tools as some sort of substitute threats to the role of a consultant. However, the first pillar of consulting is relating with people: whatever is the challenge, from frameworking a problem to finding a solution, the most important skill of a consultant is being able to understand the client. In this sense, GEN AI will never be able to have that sort of “human touch”, it will not be able to fully humanely relate with a human being. So, rather than thinking about how GEN AI can take over some jobs, we should think about we can exploit it in order to reach new heights of productivity.
