How Is Artificial Intelligence Changing the Path to a Career in IT Consulting?

Concerns about entering the IT consulting field have grown in recent months. In 2021, 78% of new graduates still rated their chances on the job market as good or very good. By 2026, only 37% of respondents will share that view. One reason for this is the supposedly unstoppable adoption of artificial intelligence in companies. At least, that’s what a survey by WirtschaftsWoche suggests: More than 1,000 HR managers plan to hire about 35% fewer new graduates by 2030. Unfortunately, the news from recent months does not paint a reassuring picture.

However, these challenges also present new opportunities for career starters. These will be discussed in more detail below. The “traditional” tasks for career starters are increasingly being phased out. These include, among other things, the processing and quality assurance of various types of data, research activities, and other routine tasks. Three points are particularly worth highlighting, as they offer, in my opinion, the greatest opportunities for career starters:

1. Early Responsibility and Strategic Tasks

Let’s consider the following scenario: A client wants to know whether it’s worth migrating their existing infrastructure to the cloud. In the past, weeks were spent documenting the system landscape, gathering cost data, and evaluating comparative studies. Today, AI can handle a large portion of this work. The challenge now lies in evaluating, contextualizing, and interpreting the AI’s results. New professionals must learn to work in a more judgment-based manner. This enables them to take responsibility for their own results early on.

2. AI Competence as a Career Accelerator

This leads directly to the second point: the proper use of AI tools for specific tasks. If all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. This saying also applies to AI tools. Not every problem can be solved with an LLM. When it comes to processing and analyzing large amounts of data, the probabilistic approach of an LLM isn’t always the right choice.

Using the right tools saves time and resources—not to mention improves the quality of the results. In practice, it’s clear that many users have not yet recognized the benefits of using AI tools correctly. Therefore, it’s worth exploring AI tools within your own field and learning how to use them properly. A superficial assessment isn’t enough.

3. Human Skills as the Link

It’s no secret that using AI can boost a company’s productivity. However, it cannot build trust with customers, handle difficult conversations, or guide a process. This leads to the third key aspect: human skills.

Especially for those just starting their careers, the inhibition threshold for supposedly “simple” questions is often lower. This allows misunderstandings to be cleared up early on and avoids unnecessary technical jargon. By asking follow-up questions, you signal to the person you’re speaking with that their problems are being taken seriously, rather than simply resolving them with supposedly standardized solutions.

Especially when those just starting their careers do not yet possess the deepest technical expertise, they can make an impression with their human strengths.

In summary: Those who are willing to take on responsibility early on, use AI strategically as a tool, and simultaneously continue to develop their human skills can turn the changes brought about by AI into an opportunity and lay a solid foundation for a career in IT consulting.