Reflections on the ICMCI AI Code of Practice: How does AI strengthen the practice of management consulting?

The Code’s purpose is therefore to govern the responsible use of AI within that existing professional context. The Code doesn’t start with AI. It starts with the assumption of an already-defined profession. The inquiry that follows begins one step earlier. Rather than examining how artificial intelligence should be governed, I wish to examine the professional understanding of management consulting that the Code itself quietly assumes.

The inquiry that follows begins one step earlier. Rather than examining how artificial intelligence should be governed, I wish to examine the professional understanding of management consulting that the Code itself quietly assumes.

I find myself asking a question that lies outside the scope of the Code. Rather than considering how management consultants should use artificial intelligence, I begin by asking a more fundamental question: how is value actually created during a management consulting engagement?

This question proves unexpectedly useful because it shifts the discussion away from technology and back towards the profession.

Viewed through the consulting lifecycle, the appropriate place of artificial intelligence becomes much clearer. AI strengthens many of the supporting activities that occur during an engagement: research, evidence gathering, document analysis, drafting, comparison, scenario exploration and communication. All while leaving the consultant responsible for understanding the client’s organisational context, exercising professional judgement and accepting responsibility for advice.

The more I examine the consulting lifecycle, however, the more another pattern emerges.

A consulting engagement unfolds through recognisable stages: engagement, investigation, analysis, recommendation, implementation and review. Yet these stages are only one way of looking at consulting practice.

Running through every stage is another set of professional capabilities. Consultants continuously gather and test evidence, challenge assumptions, interpret organisational context, integrate disparate observations, communicate emerging understanding and exercise professional judgement. These capabilities do not belong to any single stage of an engagement. They are exercised repeatedly from beginning to end.

This leads me to a further observation: management consulting appears to possess two complementary anatomies.

The first is temporal, describing how a consulting engagement unfolds over time.

The second is professional, describing the enduring capabilities that consultants bring to every engagement regardless of where they are in the lifecycle.

Seen from this perspective, artificial intelligence occupies an interesting position. It does not replace either anatomy. Instead, it strengthens particular activities within both. AI assists consultants in gathering evidence, analysing information, exploring alternatives and communicating findings, while leaving professional responsibility, contextual understanding and judgement firmly in human hands.

This observation also gives me a renewed appreciation of the ICMCI Code. Read in this light, the Code is not simply governing the use of artificial intelligence. It is protecting the enduring professional capabilities that define competent management consulting, regardless of the technology employed.

Perhaps that is one of its most important contributions. The Code reminds us that while our tools continue to evolve, the professional disciplines that enable consultants to create value for their clients remain remarkably constant.

The ICMCI Code provides an essential framework for governing the responsible use of artificial intelligence. Yet, it prompts me to ask a question that perhaps sits beyond the immediate purpose of a professional standard. If the Code defines how consultants should use artificial intelligence responsibly, is there also value in examining more explicitly how artificial intelligence strengthens the practice of management consulting itself?

One explains the disciplines that must never be compromised. The other explains how technology strengthens the activities through which consultants create value. Together, they offer a broader understanding of the profession as it evolves alongside increasingly capable artificial intelligence.

Ian Gribble is an Australian management consultant whose interests lie at the intersection of professional judgement, organisational performance and artificial intelligence. Rather than viewing AI as a replacement for expertise, he explores how AI can strengthen the way professionals investigate complex problems, construct sound judgement and create value for the organisations they serve.

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