UK Consultants Ditch Big Firms to Launch AI Startups
Wave of UK consultants leaving major firms to build AI consultancy startups as the sector outpaces broader market growth.
Big consulting is bleeding talent to the AI gold rush. A growing number of UK-based consultants are walking away from established firms to launch their own AI-focused startups.
Their target? Automating the common, repetitive work that companies still waste countless hours on. These new ventures are building software designed to handle the drudge work that traditional consulting has long profited from — except now the pitch is doing it faster and cheaper with AI.
The trend reflects a broader boom in the UK's AI consulting sector, which is growing significantly faster than the wider consulting market. That gap is apparently wide enough to convince experienced professionals that the risk of going independent beats the safety of a big-firm paycheck.
It's a classic disruption pattern: insiders see the opportunity, grab the playbook, and bet on themselves.