Expert360 fire sale and the future of professional services

Expert360 raised more than $30 million over a decade and has reportedly just been sold for cents on the dollar, with its founder and earliest backers receiving nothing.

What does that tell us about the future of professional services?

Expert360 was built around a model that made a lot of sense: match a company with an independent expert who could solve a problem for a few weeks or months, rather than bringing in a traditional consulting firm.

But the economics of that model look increasingly different when AI can do much of the research, analysis and drafting that once justified paying for hours of expert time.

That does not mean expertise has stopped mattering. If anything, I suspect the opposite. What is changing is where the value sits.

When the marginal cost of producing a competent first draft approaches zero, the value of simply producing the work falls with it. What becomes more valuable is knowing which problem to solve, applying judgement to the answer, taking accountability for the decision and turning it into an outcome.

That has significant implications for professional services. The question is no longer simply whether AI will replace consultants. It is whether the business model of selling expert time can survive when a growing proportion of that time can be automated.

That is the question I would be asking of every professional services business right now: Which of your revenue lines would still stand up if the research and drafting were free?

Thoughts? Mac Walker Chris Lorang Michael Kirch Lindsay Ratcliffe Peter Wright David English Kuba Tymula Dr Gerald Khoury Louise O'Donnell Betsy Tong Gerd Schenkel ⭐ Scott Galloway Mark Cameron Avi Shaul Kristan Vingrys