The “AI Consultant” Market Is In Serious Trouble

Over the last 90 days, I’ve had loads of inbound from AI consultants, AI development shops, and AI gurus, and they all want one thing.

Any business I can throw at them, even free work.

Well, that’s a total 180, no?

Cred: I’ve been in this weird space over the last few years where I’ve split my time between being in a position to introduce and integrate AI into existing high-growth companies while also being one of those AI consultants myself.

This is a by-product of being a career-long entrepreneur and founder who doesn’t want to entrepreneur and found right now, so instead, I’m helping really bright and brilliant people do those entrepreneur-type things.

One of the startups in my own rearview is one of the first Generative AI platforms, launched in 2010 and acquired by private equity in 2015. I’m technical. I say this because people don’t know I’m technical, they think I’m like a McKinsey guy or something, maybe because I can write. Or my haircut.

In fact, I’m very data-heavy technical, so when I say “AI consultant,” I wasn’t messing with chatbots, I was digging into data and pipelines to discover high-growth product opportunities.

At the height of AI hype, I was being offered up to $1000 an hour to come in and “do AI.” And not just me, my friends and colleagues were being tempted by these ridiculous sums too. I never accepted those kinds of offers, and now those offers have dried up, so, you know, I’m an idiot.

But I also know the reason why those $1000-an-hour offers have dried up.

Well, it’s four reasons.