Beyond the Obelisk: Why the Future of Consulting is a Rhombus

Redrawing the Blueprint of Advisory

In their recent article for Harvard Business Review, David S. Duncan, Tyler Anderson, and Jeffrey Saviano argued that artificial intelligence is not eliminating consulting but reshaping it. They describe how generative AI tools are automating the once time-intensive tasks of research, modeling, and analysis, undermining the traditional pyramid model that has long defined the profession. In its place, they propose the obelisk: a leaner, taller model with fewer layers, smaller teams, and greater leverage at every level.

It is an important and persuasive reframing. Yet at Assetive, we believe the obelisk does not go far enough. It represents a stretched pyramid — an incremental evolution of a legacy shape. To truly capture the opportunities of this moment, consulting must be conceived differently from first principles.

The Crumbling of the Pyramid

As Duncan, Anderson, and Saviano note, “AI is undermining the traditional model consulting firms use to fulfill demand” by automating tasks that once consumed armies of junior consultants. Firms such as McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Deloitte, and PwC are already deploying proprietary AI platforms — from Lilli to Deckster to Sage and beyond — to accelerate research, generate client decks, and synthesize insights.

The effect is structural. If AI performs in seconds what once justified thousands of billable analyst hours, the pyramid’s broad base collapses. The consulting industry can no longer depend on the sheer scale of junior talent to sustain its economics.

The Obelisk: A Useful but Transitional Model

The HBR authors describe the obelisk through three key roles:

• AI facilitators, junior consultants fluent in AI tools and workflows.

• Engagement architects, experienced consultants who define problems, interpret outputs, and orchestrate work.

• Client leaders, senior advisors who cultivate trust and guide executives through disruption.

This triad reflects a genuine rebalancing: smaller teams, greater speed, and less overhead. AI creates new leverage by “freeing consultants to focus on the things that demand judgment, creativity, and deeper engagement with clients.”

Yet for all its insight, the obelisk remains a vertical extension of the pyramid. Its center is still narrow. Its base, while diminished, still carries significance. And critically, it frames AI’s impact primarily as a force multiplier of efficiency, rather than as a catalyst for re-anchoring the very center of consulting work.

The Rhombus: Concentrating Value at the Core

While we at Assetive like the premise of the obelisk, we would argue that a better, future-ready metaphor is the rhombus.

• A sharpened apex remains essential. Clients value a trusted senior relationship — a single point of contact who contextualizes advice, manages complexity, and provides bespoke engagement.

• A minimized base reflects the reality that the “heavy lifting” of research and modeling has been democratized. Data is now abundant, instantly accessible, and increasingly commoditized.

• A widened middle represents the new center of gravity. Here lies the synthesis of democratized data into actionable insight, the structuring of capital raises and transactions, and the implementation of operational guidance. This is where human judgment, creativity, and execution converge — and where Assetive situates its platform.

The rhombus therefore embodies a consulting model that is neither scale-dependent nor merely efficiency-driven, but rather value-concentrated. It acknowledges that the most significant opportunity AI creates is not stretching the hierarchy upward but rebalancing the locus of value toward the middle.

Rebalancing the Locus of Value Toward the Middle

From Leverage to Value Concentration

The HBR authors write that “what matters now is delivering sharper thinking with greater speed and less overhead.” The rhombus extends this logic: what matters most is concentrating value where insight meets execution.

• For strategy, this means moving from conceptual frameworks to directed, evidence-based answers.

• For capital raising and transactions, it means accelerating processes without sacrificing rigor — ensuring that structuring, diligence, and negotiation are carried out with both speed and precision.

• For operational guidance, it means bridging advisory and execution through platforms such as Assetive’s Outsourced COO, where strategic recommendations are embedded in ongoing operations.

In this model, AI is not simply a tool for leverage. It is the enabler of a complete rebalance of consulting’s geometry.

Implications for the Industry

The rhombus challenges firms to redesign not only workflows but philosophies:

• Talent must be cultivated not for volume but for synthesis — consultants who combine technical fluency with judgment and execution.

• Client engagement must remain senior-led and bespoke, not delegated through layers of middle management.

• Economics must shift from billable-hour pyramids to value-driven partnerships.

• Governance and ethics must be embedded into workflows, ensuring that AI-augmented decisions are transparent, accountable, and equitable.

As the HBR authors rightly caution, incumbents are unlikely to disrupt themselves; their incentives are too deeply wired to the pyramid. This opens the door for AI-native firms — and, we would add, for rhombus-shaped firms — to define the future of the profession.

Assetive’s Commitment

At Assetive, we are building our practice on this conviction. We operate not as a stretched pyramid but as a rhombus:

• preserving the intimacy of a single senior point of client contact,

• harnessing democratized data and AI

  to minimize unnecessary foundations, and

• concentrating our energy in the middle, where insights, strategy, and execution converge.

The age of the pyramid is ending. The obelisk is a transitional figure. The rhombus is the true shape of consulting in the age of AI: balanced, centered, and designed for value.