PREMIUM Project 2026-2027: Sparke & Keane

Investigate how AI is reshaping consultancy and develop a practical framework for the future consultant, identifying the skills, profiles and responsible AI practices needed to maintain high-quality, human-centred advice.
  • sparke & keane

    The Project:

    The Future Consultant: How AI Will Change Consulting

    AI is already changing the way consultants work. Research, analysis, presentations, and reporting can increasingly be supported by AI. This creates opportunities but also raises questions about the role of the consultant in the future. At the same time, using AI also brings risks. For example, overreliance on AI-generated output, reduced critical thinking, confidentiality, and the quality of advice given to clients. 

    We would like the PREMIUM team to investigate how AI could change the consultancy profession.

    What skills will consultants need in the coming years? Which tasks will change or potentially disappear? What kind of people should we recruit, both as employees and as freelancers (ZZP'ers)? And how should we prepare our current consultants for these changes? 
    But there is another side to the story. How do you make sure consultants do not become too dependent on AI? What happens to critical thinking? How do you deal with confidentiality and the quality of AI-generated output?

    The challenge is to bring these different perspectives together and translate them into practical recommendations for a real consultancy organisation. The outcome could help Sparke & Keane think about future consultant profiles, recruitment, development, and responsible use of AI.

    We would like to use the results as a practical starting point for Sparke & Keane. For example, the team could develop a framework describing the consultant of the future, including the skills and competencies that will become more important while taking the human factor into account as well. 
    We are also interested in recommendations for recruitment and development of consultants and freelancers, as well as practical guidelines and not-yet-explored opportunities for using AI responsibly within consultancy. 
    The exact format is open to the students. We mainly want the project to result in something that we can actually use and discuss internally, rather than only a theoretical analysis. It should not be a summation of do’s and don’ts but should give us something to genuinely reflect on and look forward with, without losing the human side of consultancy. 

  • The Client:

    Sparke & Keane is a Dutch consultancy firm, founded in 2010 and based in Eindhoven, with a second office in Maastricht. The company has a team of more than 150 consultants, ranging from young professionals to experienced executives. Its main areas of expertise include Executive Consulting, LEAN Project & Program Management, Finance & Control, Digital Transformation and Recruitment & Selection. Sparke & Keane supports organisations with strategic and operational challenges, combining external expertise with the knowledge already present within the client organisation. The company focuses on a pragmatic, hands-on approach, working together with clients to turn complex challenges into practical solutions and measurable results.

    We are looking for students who are curious, critical, and willing to challenge the way consultancy is done today by giving practical advice to current and future consultants in the form of an imaginative framework called The Future Consultant. We would like to work with students that are willing to work towards practical recommendations, not stopping at the end of their research. 
  • Research Oriented

    In this project, the focus is on “discovering something new”


     
    Formal client

    This client provides an assignment and perceives the team of students as consultants doing a job for them. The formal client provides guidance and supports the team with feedback, but is not actively involved in project execution.