A UC Berkeley Haas study found something that should make consulting founders stop and think.
When people start using AI, they don’t work fewer hours. They pull previously outsourced tasks back in-house and squeeze in more work during evenings, weekends, waiting rooms, wherever they can find a spare moment.
I suspect the same thing happens with consulting founders, and it’s worth checking yourself on.
AI frees up hours that used to go into slide decks, proposals, admin, research. Here is where I’ve observed top consulting founders focus that time instead (I’ve written about this at length before, I’ll tag a few of those articles in the comments if you’re interested):
👉 Leadership (planning, hiring, decisions)
👉 Marketing (positioning, proposition design, content)
👉 Sales (prospecting, converting warm prospects)
👉 Delivery (the client work you can’t hand off)
What I think is actually happening for a lot of founders is simpler and less flattering. The freed up time doesn’t move toward those four things. It gets spent taking on more of the work you used to hand off, more tasks back on your own plate that may not move the needle in your business at all.
I’ve come across a few consulting founders doing this without realizing it, and I suspect there are many more.
If this is true for you, AI hasn’t freed you up. It’s just given you permission to hoard more work.
Ask yourself honestly: when AI saves you an hour, where does it actually go?
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