Consultancies must reinvent themselves as software companies if they are to survive in the age of artificial intelligence, according to the head of IBM Consulting.
A rethink was needed because of new competition from technology companies and scepticism from clients, Mohamad Ali told the Financial Times in an interview, as questions swirl in the industry about the opportunities and threats posed by AI.
Ali returned to IBM two years ago with a brief to turn its consulting arm into a “service as a software” business and build thousands of digital “agents” that perform tasks with minimal human oversight, first inside the company and then for clients.