How AI is Transforming Consulting, Auditing, and Legal Advising

The process of choosing a consulting company for cooperation is a serious decision for any business because, in essence, its future may hinge on the advice or other type of service it receives from it. While the demand for consulting services is high, so are the client expectations. Consulting firms feel the mounting pressure of competition and the necessity to stand out, forcing them to look for new ways to increase efficiency and provide better and faster services. 

The rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and agentic workflows are among those solutions that help consulting companies improve efficiency, discover new ways to grow, and expand the range of services they offer.  In this article, we will explore how AI is transforming consulting, auditing, and legal advising and discuss specific use cases on how such industry leaders like McKinsey, Deloitte, BCG, and PwC are already integrating AI into their workflows to optimize performance, deliver deeper insights, and address complex challenges.

How AI Is Transforming the Industry

The impact of AI on the consulting, auditing, and legal advising sector is diverse. 

In consulting sector:

• AI improves data interpretation and analysis, reducing errors caused by human factors and providing insights unavailable through traditional methods. It leads to more accurate client recommendations.

• AI automates manual tasks, increasing productivity and reducing costs (e.g., AI chatbots provide 24/7 client support).

• AI analyzes financial data for personalized financial advice based on trends.

• AI enables new services like supply chain optimization and scenario simulation for data-driven decisions.

In the auditing sector:

• AI automates repetitive tasks, improves risk detection, and enhances audit reliability and efficiency.

• AI handles data reconciliation, reducing errors and flagging discrepancies.

• Sentiment analysis and anomaly detection identify fraud/compliance risks in real time.

• AI generates audit reports, freeing auditors for higher-value tasks.

• Chatbots are usually internal, used for retrieving templates, policies, or explaining regulations.

In the legal advising sector:

• AI automates legal research, drafting, compliance monitoring, and managing vast amounts of information and evolving regulations.

• AI reviews legal precedents and extracts insights.

• Agentic workflows generate, review, and refine legal documents.

• AI tracks regulatory updates and provides firm-specific compliance guidance.

• Chatbots gather case details, check eligibility, pre-fill forms, and generate simple contracts using templates. They provide general legal information preliminary to the full advice.

AI in Action: How Industry Leaders Are Integrating AI IntoTheir Workflows

Deloitte

Deloitte, a top consulting firm, has spent billions on AI and currently uses several AI tools to improve audits, legal work, and consulting.  In March, Deloitte introduced Zora AI agents, trained in fields like finance and marketing. Deloitte uses these agents internally to automate audit tasks like checking data and spotting errors. In one case, Zora AI looked at millions of transactions for a financial audit, cutting audit time by 30% and making the results more accurate. Zora is also used with Google Cloud's AI to help spot risks in real-time—for example, it helped flag compliance issues in a global bank's transactions. Deloitte also offers Zora AI to clients, helping them with tasks like detecting fraud in finance or personalizing marketing campaigns in retail. These agents act like smart assistants, delivering faster results for both Deloitte and its clients.

Deloitte is very careful with generative AI and takes it very seriously, especially when it comes to data security. ChatGPT is blocked on its internal systems to protect client data. For client-facing tasks, Deloitte has created a tool called PairD, their flagship AI productivity assistant, which is built to work across many domains, including legal, audit, consulting, and tax. This tool assists employees with tasks such as drafting emails or documents, creating presentations, summarizing reports, extracting data from contracts, and researching internal and external knowledge. PairD has been rolled out to 75,000 employees across Europe and the Middle East. In the UK, usage among audit staff is currently reaching nearly 75% using the tool at least once a month. In one of the use cases, it helped check legal risks in a merger deal in under 24 hours, a task that normally takes weeks.

Deloitte also has its own chatbot, Sidekick, for tasks like emails, summarizing notes, and brainstorming, however it can be used only for non client-related tasks. This restriction helps protect client confidentiality, avoid the risk of exposing sensitive information to AI models, and ensure compliance with strict data security and regulatory standards. Deloitte has also enhanced its Ascend platform by integrating generative AI capabilities to automate tasks such as data migration, validation, and reconciliation, reducing manual effort and errors.  These enhancements are part of Deloitte's broader strategy to leverage AI in transforming business operations, ensuring clients can adapt to the requirements of the modern world. 

Leaders at Deloitte believe AI is changing consulting. They're encouraging staff to use it, test it, and find new ways to work smarter. These tools save time and improve results, but human expertise remains key to a company's operations. By balancing AI's speed with consultants' skills, Deloitte delivers better outcomes for clients while keeping data secure.

KPMG

KPMG, another leading consulting firm, uses AI to speed up and improve legal work. They have adopted a customized AI platform called Google's Agentspace, an AI platform with smart agents that analyze data to make legal work faster and easier. KPMG uses it internally to review contracts quickly. In one case, they used it to scan thousands of vendor contracts for a tech client. The AI quickly flags clauses that might break new privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA. The platform can help cut review time in half and ensure compliance.  KPMG also offers Agentspace to clients through a partnership with Google Cloud, helping them make data-driven decisions in areas like compliance and operations.

Another tool, KymChat, is a proprietary generative AI assistant that enables the company's employees to access ChatGPT's capabilities in a protected KPMG environment.  It enhances productivity by automating routine tasks such as document summarization, data analysis, and content generation. Users can prepare legal proposals much quicker, so the client receives the response also in a shorter time. To support clients in adopting similar AI solutions, KPMG offers an 'accelerator' program that combines KymChat's functionalities with consulting services, helping organizations gain hands-on experience with generative AI while prioritizing data privacy and compliance.

KPMG takes a responsible approach to implementing AI technologies. The firm emphasizes that while AI tools can automate certain tasks, human oversight remains critical to ensure accuracy and ethical decision-making. They're also using retrieval augmented generation (RAG) to make their AI tools more accurate and tailored.  Additionally, the company is taking a two-way approach to AI adoption. They combine leadership-driven strategies ("top-down") with letting employees experiment and innovate on their own ("bottom-up"). 

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)

PwC is another largest consulting firm that is also actively using AI to make audits and compliance faster, smarter, and more accurate. For example, they use AI to automate tasks like shelf analysis in retail audits. In a retail audit, they used computer vision and radio frequency identification (RFID) to automatically check store shelves for correct product placement and pricing. 

They have also adopted ChatPwC, a secure internal AI assistant that helps staff with repetitive tasks so they can focus on higher-value work. It is used across the firm, from automating meeting summaries to drafting contracts, and integrates into day-to-day work environments like Google Workspace and Microsoft Office. ChatPwC started as an internal chatbot but now helps clients by generating compliance reports and improving audit transparency. By acting as a "client zero," PwC uses the insights gained from the tool to advise and build similar solutions for their clients.

They also launched Agent OS, a platform that brings all their AI agents into one system. This platform acts as a central hub, enabling seamless integration and coordination of AI agents from various vendors such as Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Salesforce. By connecting these agents, Agent OS facilitates the automation of complex business processes, enhancing efficiency and scalability. Instead of each AI tool working alone, Agent OS makes them work together like a coordinated team. PwC believes this kind of AI teamwork won't just boost efficiency, it will inevitably drive business growth.

Ernst & Young (EY)

EY,  one more consulting firm among the big four, also uses AI in two main areas: predictive auditing and regulatory compliance. EY’s EY.ai Agentic Platform, powered by NVIDIA AI, helps predict financial risks. The platform uses AI agents to handle tasks such as data collection, document analysis, and tax compliance. For example, 150 AI agents are assisting 80,000 EY tax professionals to improve efficiency in tax processes. EY combines AI with human expertise to ensure ethical practices and compliance with regulations like GDPR. The system includes tools to develop custom AI models tailored to specific industries, such as finance, manufacturing, and life sciences, so EY also offers the platform to businesses across sectors to help them automate processes, reduce risk, and improve decision-making with AI.

As part of Financial Crime services, AI agents also help in identifying and managing risks, including compliance with financial regulations, such as AML, Know Your Customer (KYC), sanctions screening, and data privacy laws like GDPR. The AI automates transaction monitoring, risk assessment, and reporting, reducing manual effort and improving accuracy. It flags suspicious activities, allowing the firm to take quick action and avoid penalties. EY also ensures that their AI models are fair and free from bias.

McKinsey & Company

While tools like ChatGPT popularized conversational AI, McKinsey, one of the leading management consulting firms, don’t use it, relying instead on secure internal tools. With this purpose, they have developed its own AI chatbot called Lilli, which uses over 100 years of the firm’s internal knowledge. Originally, Lilli couldn’t read PowerPoint files where most of McKinsey’s work lives, but it has been upgraded with this ability recently. Since launching in 2023, Lilli has become widely used by over 70% of McKinsey’s 45,000 employees, who refer to it about 17 times a week. Consultants use it for research, document summarization, data analysis, and brainstorming, saving consultants 30% of their time on different tasks. They can choose whether to get info from internal or external sources. Employees can ask Lilli questions, and it quickly finds key points and 5-7 helpful documents and even connects them with relevant McKinsey employees who have deep knowledge or experience in the topic the user is asking about. Lilli also helps consultants quickly synthesize client data to identify market trends or operational inefficiencies, reducing research time from days to hours. 

Lilli is part of McKinsey’s long-standing AI efforts. Back in 2015, it acquired QuantumBlack, a data and AI company that now serves as its AI consulting arm, employing 7,000 tech experts across 50 countries. Beyond Lilli, McKinsey uses AI in other ways. For example, consultants can build their own AI agents that solve specific problems or automate tasks. There are also specialized tools that help consultants quickly learn about specific companies faster and general firm-wide tools for tasks like booking meetings and travel. The firm also builds custom AI solutions for clients inspired by Lilli’s success. They’ve done over 400 generative AI projects for clients, often in partnership with companies like Microsoft, Google, and Nvidia. 

Despite the wide adoption of AI solutions showing high effectiveness, McKinsey employees don’t seem worried about job security. Lilli and other AI tools are helping McKinsey deliver faster, better results for clients while keeping human expertise at the core.  McKinsey projects that 40% of its revenue will be AI-related by 2026, underscoring its strategic focus on AI adoption.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

Internally, BCG, one of the leading management consulting firms, has fully embraced AI tools. In 2023, it rolled out ChatGPT Enterprise to all 33,000 employees, a secure version of ChatGPT, that ensures all data stays within BCG. Since then, employees have built over 18,000 custom GPTs to help with tasks like writing emails, summarizing documents, and answering HR questions. Another tool they adopted is Deckster, an AI-powered tool for creating presentations. Deckster has been trained on 800-900 slide templates to quickly create presentations. It has a "review this" button, which allows junior consultants to get feedback on their work, helping them follow best practices used by senior managers. About 40% of junior consultants use it every week. 

BCG has also developed several own internal generative AI tools, including GENE, a conversational chatbot built on GPT-4o. It is trained on BCG’s own information like internal research, expert interviews, articles and other expert content,  so it understands how BCG works and thinks. It is used for assisting with brainstorming, content creation, live demos, and even interviewing partners for firm content. GENE has a robotic voice that reminds people that it's an AI. 

BCG sees AI-adoption very positively. The firm estimates that employees save about 70% of their time, which is reinvested into higher-value activities, so it is not cutting jobs. However, BCG is still considering how AI tools should be factored into performance evaluations.

Challenges and Ethical Considerations

Although there are tremendous advantages of applying AI in consulting services, at the same time, it is worth noting that it also raises certain ethical issues and perspectives. 

• Bias and discrimination: AI models might inherit biases and discrimination from training data and produce unfair or unethical results. 

• Lack of transparency: AI systems are difficult to configure, modify, and generally understand. This can raise questions about their ethical impact and how to address liability in case of errors. 

• Data Privacy issues. AI implementation in consulting services may have privacy issues, particularly with the collection and analysis of personal data.

• Job losses. AI can automate jobs and can replace human labour which can lead to negative social and ethical impacts. According to a study by the McKinsey & Company,  as many as 800 million jobs around the world could be displaced by 2030. 

The Future of AI in Professional Services

The adoption of AI in consulting, auditing, and legal advising is accelerating. Firms are moving beyond internal tools to client-facing AI solutions, as seen with PwC’s expansion of ChatPwC. The rise of AI as a Service (AIaaS) and advancements in machine learning and NLP will further expand AI’s applications. Buthuman skill is still essential.  AI augments consultants’ capabilities, but creativity, strategic judgment, and client relationships require human insight. Firms are upskilling workforces to balance AI and human strengths, ensuring a hybrid model that maximizes value.

Final Thoughts

Artificial intelligence has a promising future in consulting, auditing, and legal advising by automating tasks, enhancing insights, and ensuring compliance. Despite challenges like the necessity of sufficient investments and data privacy concerns, AI adoption is growing. Generative AI also raises issues with accuracy and cybersecurity. Still, overcoming these hurdles can bring big advantages, helping companies stay ahead in the shift from digital to AI-driven business. McKinsey’s Lilli, Deloitte’s Zora AI,  EY’s EY.ai and other solutions used by the industry leaders serve as prominent examples on how top firms are leveraging AI not just for efficiency, but to enhance the way consultants think, research, and collaborate. As these firms tackle ethical issues, invest in training, and implement AI in a responsible way, they’re setting the stage for a future where AI delivers unparalleled client value. Interestingly, despite highly advanced tools, humans are still at the center, using AI to amplify, not replace, their expertise.