Here's how elite consulting firms are racing to hire engineers - and train everyone else in AI

""Going to a client and purely proposing an army of consultants doesn't really work anymore," Gert De Geyter, a former AI lead at Deloitte US, told Business Insider. Instead of the "pure traditional consultant," firms are now looking for a blend of "generalists and technical experts," said De Geyter, who left the firm in July to join AI startup Teragonia."

"The work that consultants do is changing. Straight advisory projects are being replaced with building, implementing, and maintaining tools for companies, requiring technology expertise over research skills. Hiring data reveals how aggressively top firms have been expanding their technologist ranks. Accenture's latest annual report shows it added nearly 40,000 AI and data professionals in the last two years. They now account for roughly 10% of its global head count."

"At McKinsey, the "AI engineer" is the fastest-growing non-entry-level role, followed by procurement officer, data scientist, and software engineer, according to workforce intelligence company Revelio Labs. At Boston Consulting Group, software engineers, frontend developers, and Python developers are the fastest-growing entry-level roles. BCG, which brought on 1,000 employees last year, has ramped up hiring technologists since launching its tech and AI arm, BCG X, in late 2022."

Consulting work is shifting from advisory slide-deck projects to building, implementing, and maintaining AI-driven tools and multi-year transformation programs. Firms now require technology expertise more than traditional research skills, prompting large-scale hiring and retraining efforts. Accenture added nearly 40,000 AI and data professionals in two years, while EY added 61,000 technologists since 2023. McKinsey lists AI engineer as its fastest-growing non-entry-level role, and BCG has increased software and Python developer hires through its BCG X unit. The ideal consultant profile blends generalist consulting skills with deep technical capabilities to execute and sustain AI solutions.

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