Consulenza alla sfida dell’AI: «Alzerà la competizione, ma apre nuovi mercati»

Alberto Antonietti, president of Assoconsult, the association of business consultancy firms, addresses the challenge of artificial intelligence (AI) in a recent interview with Il Sole 24 Ore. Antonietti, who is also the managing director of Accenture, emphasizes that AI is not merely a new competitor for the sector, but a new architectural framework that companies must rethink their operations and consultancy services around.

AI is set to increase competition within the industry, making the value that consultancy can provide more transparent. Some tasks, such as benchmarking, meeting facilitation, and information organization, may see a reduction, forcing the consultancy industry to reinvent its services. Antonietti clarifies that AI will not replace the consultancy sector, nor will it significantly boost its growth. Instead, it will create a new market question: how to redesign companies with the help of AI.

Only 5% of Italian companies use AI systematically, while 30% experiment with it superficially, and the remaining 65% remains unfamiliar with it. Antonietti explains that the transformation process involves translating an organization's knowledge, practices, and language into AI models. The sector is growing, with Assoconsult estimating the management consulting market to reach 7 billion euros this year, with a 5% increase.

Public administration is driving this growth due to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr), while the private sector is growing more slowly.

Women make up more than 40% of the 50,000 consultants in Italy, with over half being under 35 years old. The turnover is returning to historical levels, and the consultancy industry continues to hire aggressively, with over 3,000 new entries annually. Despite geopolitical uncertainty, Antonietti stresses the importance of constructing value-added services, maintaining high expertise, and being highly specialized. The key to success is accepting a new rule: sharing more risk with companies and public administrations.