Episode 134: Embracing AI: How Consultants Can Stay Irreplaceable in the Digital Age

Feeling anxious about AI taking over your consulting work? You're not alone. But, you might be asking the wrong question. The real concern isn't whether artificial intelligence will replace consultants, but what happens to those who haven't clearly defined their irreplaceable value.

The anxiety surrounding AI stems from its impressive capabilities. These tools can write copy, analyze data, research, and generate solutions in seconds. This efficiency seems threatening for consultants who've built their reputation on providing information and insights. Yet AI doesn't have to make your services irrelevant. When treated as a tool rather than a threat, artificial intelligence amplifies your intellectual property rather than diluting it. 

Are you ready to challenge your beliefs about AI and discover how these tools can elevate your consulting practice? If so, tune in and don't forget to leave your ratings and reviews on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and join the conversation.

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For more information, visit https://excelatconsulting.com/

Chapters

• 0:00 Reframing the AI Threat
• 1:43 AI's Capabilities and Consultant Fears
• 4:31 AI as a Tool, Not a Replacement
• 7:09 Protecting Ideas in the Digital Age
• 12:27 Embracing AI for Business Growth
• 15:42 Closing Thoughts and Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

If you're wondering if AI is going to replace your job as a consultant, you're not the only one. This is a concern that many consultants have, but I want you to ask a different question what happens to consultants who haven't clearly defined what makes them irreplaceable? I will offer that that's the real question, because it's not the tech that's the threat. It's blending in, and in this episode, we're going to uncover all of the anxiety around artificial intelligence, or AI, and it taking over our jobs, and how we can actually combat that and also use it to our advantage. Combat that and also use it to our advantage. So if you're interested in being the consultant that wins in this new modern era, you're going to want to tune in. Hi, my name is Dr Angelina Davis and I am the founder of Accela Consulting and the host of the Black Girls Consult 2 podcast. And if you've been a little bit uneasy about how AI fits into your world as a consultant, then this is going to be the topic of our conversation today, because I do think that, in order for us to survive in the future of consulting, we're going to have to learn how to live with all these new tools that are popping up all around us. We're going to talk about some of the fears that come with using AI, protecting your intellectual property and staying in integrity all of those things and why the consultants who are going to thrive in this next era are the ones who know how to capitalize on it, because they are going to be leading the pack. So I want to walk you through some of the beliefs that you may have and then how to possibly reframe those and restructure those to use them to your advantage. Now here's the truth. Ai is extremely helpful and it can do a lot of things. It can write copy for you, it can summarize information, it can analyze data, it can navigate different algorithms and come up with answers and solutions. It can do research. It can just do a lot of heavy lifting, and not only can it do it and do it pretty well, it can do it in a matter of seconds.

Speaker 1: 2:20

So for many traditional consultants, that can be something that is a little bit anxiety producing, and that's largely because, historically, we built our reputation and our names on just the information that we provide, being able to come up with solutions and strategies that provide insight. But I think often we undervalue where that insight comes from. I think often we undervalue where that insight comes from and, in all honesty, it's the lived experiences, the years and decades of training and education, the way that you think about things differently, your philosophy all of those things make the insight you provide unique, and that is the actual value of the work that you do. So AI is not replacing that. There is no worry of AI tapping into any of that anytime soon, because that is your brilliance. But it is replacing a lot of the generic recommendations and the vague messaging, some of the things that we did, such as maybe templated ideas or certain deliverables that you can provide. It's going to be able to do those things pretty well and in order for you to fully claim your rightful place in this industry as we move forward, it's going to center around you being able to build and establish your intellectual property or intellectual capital, because when you are selling from that, that higher level thinking and strategy, that is going to be what sets you apart. But I want you to know that I understand the fear. I don't want you to feel like having anxiety around the prevalence of AI and the work that it can do is something that's unreasonable, because many of us have those fears and we're carrying those anxieties with us.

Speaker 1: 4:12

I'll be honest that I felt that way when I first began to use AI, started talking about the chat, gbts and the Claude IAs of the world. It was a concern of mine that it could potentially dilute my work. I was more worried about the fact that I had built a business on my knowledge and insights and I wanted to be in integrity with that. I wanted to make sure that the information that I provided truly came from my experiences and the knowledge that I wanted to make sure that the information that I provided truly came from my experiences and the knowledge that I had. I did not want to be misleading and I wanted the work that I presented to be excellent and in depth, and I know that you want that too.

Speaker 1: 4:58

But the truth is, and what I found out, is that AI doesn't replace your brilliance. It is a reflection of what you are able to clearly define. We have to start thinking about AI as a tool. It's a tool and a resource that we get to use to make our work a lot easier, and it's only as good as what you feed it. That's why a lot of people can enter information into ChatGPT or some of these other AI tools and try and get an answer or a response, and what they get sounds like a lot of fluff. It's very generic, it doesn't provide any level of depth or insight, and the reason being is because they are not putting in quality information, and so the outcome of the result that they get doesn't have a lot of depth. It's not something that is going to be transformative.

Speaker 1: 5:55

The fear that it will dilute your work when you're not including your brilliance is something that is not true. It's your frameworks and your methods, the way you do things differently, that will allow you to not sound like the generic content that AI may spit out to the average person, and so the problem isn't the tool itself. It's how the tool is used, and when you know how to use a tool effectively, it's going to help you to do a better job than what you have been doing before. You will be able to feed these tools your information and your insights and frame it in ways that only you can, and therefore, what they will be able to generate as a result will be something that is unique to you. That's the beauty of it. It is something that can help us along, so I don't want you to feel as if it is replacing you. Without your brilliance, it cannot give the type of insight and transformation that only you can.

Speaker 1: 7:02

Now, another fear that many of us have is that we are going to find ourselves relying on AI as a crutch. And I understand that, because trying to manage a consulting business serve clients, create deliverables, do all the things is very taxing. And even if you have a team or some help whether it's coming from VAs or contractors it's still a matter of you tying up a lot of your bandwidth and when you're doing day-to-day work, you can have limited capacity to actually sit down and get all of your knowledge and insight out of your head. And that's what it's going to require for you to be able to scale to the next level, to be able to automate a lot of your processes, to be able to utilize tools such as AI to your advantage, because it's going to take your intellect. It's going to take your methods, your frameworks, your intellectual property in order for it to be most valuable. But you have to put that on paper, and that's the part that many consultants find to be extremely difficult just having the time to sit down and do this type of work, but I want to choose to think about this a little bit differently. But I want to choose to think about this a little bit differently when it comes to thought leadership and being able to codify your frameworks and your methods.

Speaker 1: 8:34

It's not just about you building out a blog or being able to publish something online. It literally is about you creating assets that work for you over and over and over again. Over time, it is the way that you're going to be able to pull yourself out of your business so that you're not doing so much day-to-day work. You have to be able to create something that these resources, these tools, can use to help you out. So one of the things that we have to remember is that only we ourselves are in control of whether or not these tools dilute our work. If we become so dependent on them, where we utilize them without our intellect being the driver, then they will take over what we do and dilute the work that we do. But if we make sure that our knowledge remains at the forefront, if we have a core message and a structured way that we are implementing our expertise and our knowledge to drive outcomes over and over again, then that is actually what's going to make the biggest difference. So I want you to think about how you can begin to dedicate more time to this aspect of business development, because that's going to be very helpful in you moving forward.

Speaker 1: 10:01

Now, the third thing that many people are afraid of is that, when using these tools people are afraid of is that, when using these tools, someone may steal your ideas. It's not just the tools itself, like AI, but you have to think about that. If you are giving a speech, or if you are posting social media content or creating a podcast or writing an article Anytime that you are putting your knowledge and your perspective out into the world there is the possibility that someone can take what you have done and claim it as their own. Now, there are a number of ways that we can protect ourselves legally if we're able to do what I stated before, which is codify our expertise and turn it into something that can stand on its own, something that we can utilize to prove that those ideas and the expertise was developed through us or by us.

Speaker 1: 10:56

But, although this is a real concern, you have to remember that, although they may take a small snippet of what you share, they don't know how to use it. They don't have the how-to, they don't have the instruction manual. They don't know how to use it. They don't have the how-to, they don't have the instruction manual, they don't know how to implement effectively, because only you know that this was developed with your brilliance and insight in mind. So, no matter what they take or they try to reuse, it's not going to have you, and you are the irreplaceable piece. So if they take something without the system and without the structure and without the frameworks and without all the knowledge that went into how to develop it so that it's utilized in the proper context, they really don't have much at all.

Speaker 1: 11:40

And that's what we have to remember, especially in the consulting world. We have to share our ideas. We have to be able to utilize these tools to make our jobs easier. We have to know how to show up and speak to our perspective and our philosophy openly, without being worried about someone taking our ideas for themselves. And although that is always a possibility, using AI does not increase that risk. More than anything else, it literally is just another avenue of you being able to get your message out into the world at a much grander level, so that you get more reach more visibility and it helps you grow your business faster.

Speaker 1: 12:28

Now, with that being said, I want us to think about how we can embrace these tools, because it's not just about our fears and how to overcome those fears, but how do we actually use these tools and how they work and how they influence and impact our industry. Are we taking those things into conversations with our clients and with decision makers and stakeholders? Because if we're able to speak to those concerns in greater depth and we can help them understand how to navigate the difficulties they are having with utilizing these tools, then you are going to become an even greater asset by embracing that. Also, when you're thinking about AI, how can you utilize that to help your client achieve greater outcomes? Are there things that you can build out, such as personalized AI bots, or maybe different tools and frameworks and prompts that you can develop that help them to do the work more effectively? Because if you are helping them implement the strategy that you created in a way that allows them to be more successful, that's going to be a benefit to you, because now, when other prospects look at the work that your client has done and the outcomes they've achieved, they're going to tie that back to what you were able to help them create. So it is going to be social proof 10 times over.

Speaker 1: 14:02

If you're able to do those things and also if we're thinking about how we embrace these tools in our day-to-day work, that's where we can find even greater benefit, because now you're utilizing these tools to be able to work with more clients, to be able to deliver services at a higher level, where you're offering things that others cannot offer because they are too afraid to step into these waters, and you are going to be able to do the work a lot faster, with quicker turnaround times. All of these things add tremendous value to the clients that you serve, and adding more value means that you are going to eventually, as a result, generate greater revenue and potentially greater profit. So being able to embrace AI fully is where we need to be moving, especially as we're thinking about consulting moving forward, and if you have any anxiety and fear around that, I want to invite you to challenge a lot of those thoughts and beliefs, because it's not AI, which is a tool that we are using. That's going to be the threat. It's going to be not embracing it. That's going to be what can actually place you leagues behind others who are willing to do that work.

Speaker 1: 15:17

As you're thinking about your business moving forward, how can you utilize these tools more effectively? What place or role do they have in your business, and how can you help your clients also navigate this new journey that you're on with how to more effectively incorporate AI and other cutting edge resources? I hope that this episode helped you see and think about these tools a little bit differently. If you are enjoying this type of content, then let me know, and if you're listening on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, make sure that you leave your ratings and your reviews. I love to hear from you and as we move forward, remember if you are willing to be open to the newness of AI and all that it can bring. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by what results. All right, until next time, take care, bye-bye.