From Partnership Ladder to Treadmill

Making partner used to be a 15-year climb.

AI turns the ladder into a treadmill.

For a century, the consulting pyramid worked:

→ Junior consultants learned by doing analytical work

→ Managers learned by synthesizing junior output

→ Partners learned by selecting which questions to ask

AI is rapidly transforming this progression pathway:

→ KPMG AI: Compresses years of grunt work into months

→ McKinsey Lilli: Automates research instead of analysts

→ Deloitte Cortex: Handles complex modeling

Tools automate what associates once learned manually. Projects that took months now run in days.

The critical question: How do we develop expertise when the traditional apprenticeship breaks?

This knowledge factory that produced leadership benches for the world is slowing down before our eyes.

As it fades, a new model is already taking shape:

→ Technology leverage replaces human pyramids: AI tools flatten traditional hierarchies

→ Simulations replace learning on the job: Expertise develops through designed training, not work experience

→ Specialization over general management: Professionals focus where human judgment remains essential

→ Outcome-based value replaces time-based billing: Results matter, not hours spent

→ Ownership decoupled from contribution: Value creation, not tenure, determines rewards

Playbook for the ambitious individual:

→ Learn the technology, don't delegate it

→ Think in ROI and not in billable hours

→ Skip the titles and aim for equity (startups, rev-share)

→ Publish > polish (public IP is the new resume)

→ Niche-down where AI still needs judgment

The key now is to develop human judgment not as a byproduct of billable hours, but as the deliberate focus of professional development.

The question isn't will you make partner, but whether tomorrow's agents will still defer to your judgment.