Lately, I’ve been having multiple conversations with clients about the impact of AI over consulting fees. Some believe that in the very near future, AI will change their industry so much that consulting fees will drop significantly. The concern? AI will commoditize expertise and drive prices down.
While my clients raise valid points, I still believe there’s always a path to increase fees and profitability. Every market isn’t a low-cost market. In any market, there are customers focused on getting the lowest price, but there are also customers willing to pay premium fees for deep expertise that solves unmet, complex problems.
I’m a strong believer that unique knowledge and expertise, specifically geared towards solving costly and urgent problems, will always be a strong lever to maintain or even increase fees, AI or not. This got me thinking about Naval Ravikant’s insights on “specific knowledge” that was part of his epic “How to Get Rich (without getting lucky)” tweetstorm in 2018 (I’ll link to this in the comments). But here’s what he said about building specific knowledge that is so unique to you that it can’t be replicated. Utopian? I’ll let you decide. Here’s what Naval said:
🔶 “Specific knowledge is knowledge that you cannot be trained for. If society can train you, it can train someone else, and replace you.
🔶 Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion rather than following whatever’s hot right now.
🔶 Building specific knowledge will feel like play to you but will look like work to others.
🔶 When specific knowledge is taught, it’s through apprenticeships, not schools.
🔶 Specific knowledge is often highly technical or creative. It cannot be outsourced or automated.”
For me, as the founder of Consulting Leap, my specific knowledge is still a work in progress. But I know it lies at the intersection of helping independent experts and consulting firms build and sell high-profit solutions, create financial and time freedom, and build businesses they’re truly proud of – all while taking advantage of AI and high technology.
Does this resonate? Do you believe having unique and specific expertise/knowledge can help you maintain or increase fees, or this AI thing is going to force you to take a huge cut very soon?
Ready to add $100k-$500k revenue to your consulting business in 12 months or less without burning out? Schedule a call and let me show you how.
Image credit: Dalle-3
