AI for consultants: research and drafting

Consultants use AI to research faster, structure their thinking and draft proposals, reports and slides from their own notes. The value of the advice still comes from your judgement and your knowledge of the client, but ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini can take hours off the first draft of almost every deliverable.

This guide covers the consulting tasks to start with, how to protect client confidentiality, how to check the work, and where to learn it live for free.

Key facts about our free AI workshop

• Free, live on Zoom, every weekend
• 3 hours, 12:00-15:00 SAST (10:00-13:00 UK, 11:00-14:00 CET), on Saturday or Sunday (you pick one)
• ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini on your own work
• No coding needed

Which consulting tasks are worth doing with AI?

Look for work where you turn a lot of input into a structured output:

• Desk research. Ask for an overview of a sector or a regulation, with sources, then open and read the sources yourself before you rely on anything.
• Interview synthesis. Paste anonymised interview notes and ask for themes, points of disagreement and quotes that support each theme.
• Proposals. Give the client's brief (without identifying details) and ask for a first structure: understanding of the problem, approach, phases, deliverables and assumptions.
• Reports. Turn your findings into an executive summary, then ask for the same summary at three lengths for different readers.
• Slides. Ask for a storyline: one headline per slide that tells the whole argument when read in order.
• Challenge your thinking. Paste your recommendation and ask for the three strongest objections a sceptical board member would raise.

No coding needed. Join live: the questions and breakouts only happen live, and you leave with something you can use on Monday. Save my free seat.

How do I protect client confidentiality?

Confidentiality is the first rule of consulting, and it applies to AI tools too. Before you paste anything in:

• Read your engagement letter and your firm's policy. Some clients forbid AI tools on their work, and some approve specific ones.
• Remove the client's name, people's names, financial figures that identify the business and anything marked confidential.
• Prefer tools your firm has approved, with settings that stop your inputs being used to train the model.
• Never paste personal information about the client's staff or customers. In South Africa that is covered by the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).

Replacing "Acme Logistics" with "a mid-sized logistics company in Gauteng" rarely makes the answer worse. Our guide to POPIA and AI at work explains the basics. This is general information and not legal advice.

How do I check AI's research?

AI tools can produce confident statements, statistics and even sources that do not exist. In consulting, one wrong number in front of a client costs more than the time AI saved. So:

1. Ask for the source of every factual claim, then open each source yourself.
2. Use only figures you have read on the original page, named with their source in your report.
3. Check dates. A tool may describe a regulation or a market as it was, not as it is.
4. Ask the tool what it is unsure about, and treat that list as your research to-do list.

How do I keep my own voice and thinking?

Clients hire you for your view. Use AI for structure and speed, not for the recommendation itself. A useful order of work: write your own three-line answer to the client's question first, then ask the tool to help you build the argument, find the gaps and improve the wording. Paste an example of a report you are proud of and ask it to match that style. Edit the result so it reads like you, because a client who has worked with you will notice if it does not.

Can AI help me win more work?

It can help you respond faster and more clearly. Ask it to compare a request for proposal against your draft and list anything the client asked for that you have not answered. Ask for a plain-language version of your approach for a non-specialist buyer. Draft a follow-up email after a pitch meeting from your notes. For more on writing, see our guide to writing work emails with AI, and for decks, AI for PowerPoint presentations.

Which tool should a consultant use?

ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini all handle research summaries, drafting and structuring well, and each is updated often. Run one real task, such as summarising a long report, through all three with the same prompt, and compare accuracy and how much you had to edit. If your firm or client has approved one tool, use that one.

What should I do in my first week?

1. Take one recent deliverable and write down how long each part took.
2. Redo one part, such as the executive summary, with AI and your anonymised notes.
3. Check every fact and compare the time taken.
4. Save the prompt and the checks as your own short method.

What does the free workshop cover?

Over three hours on Zoom you work through choosing the right tool, writing prompts that work, researching and drafting quickly, getting answers from your own documents, making images and slides, building your own AI assistant, automating a repetitive task, making a simple web app without code, and understanding AI agents. You leave with a 30-day plan. Our hosts have taught more than 12,000 people.

It runs every weekend, on Saturday and again on Sunday, so you can pick the day that suits you. The times are set for South Africa, and the UK and Europe times above work for learners there too.

No coding needed. Join live: the questions and breakouts only happen live, and you leave with something you can use on Monday. Save my free seat.

Frequently asked questions

Can consultants use AI on client work?

Yes, if your engagement terms and your firm's policy allow it. Remove client names and confidential details first, and check every fact and figure before it reaches the client.

Will clients know I used AI?

Clients judge the quality of the thinking and the accuracy of the work. Many now ask how AI is used on their engagement, so it helps to have a clear, honest answer ready.

Do I need to know how to code?

No. The tools work in plain language, and the skills consultants already have, framing a question and structuring an answer, are exactly what good prompts need.