Vol.028 — The Labs Took a Shot at My Industry. About Time.
Date: 2026-05-15 | Newsletter
Key Summary
Eight days apart in May 2026, Anthropic announced a $1.5 billion enterprise services joint venture with Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, and Hellman & Friedman, and OpenAI launched a $4 billion deployment company borrowing Palantir’s Forward Deployed Engineer model directly. Fortune framed it as “Anthropic takes a shot at the consulting industry.” Zenta, with 20+ years inside that industry, says the shot landed where it should. The evidence for why: Sinch’s AI Production Paradox survey found 74% of enterprises rolled back live AI customer agents — not because they bought bad AI, but because they received bad consulting on AI. Klarna claimed in 2024 that its chatbot replaced 700 support reps; by 2026 it was rehiring humans and its CEO admitted AI was cheaper but produced lower quality. McKinsey, Bain, and Capgemini signed up as founding partners in the OpenAI deal rather than fight it, and Indian IT stocks dropped 5% the same week. For ASEAN SMEs, Functional AI Partners notes the new labs-as-consultants will arrive through big-budget channels first — multinationals, PE-owned portfolios — not the mid-market. The practical filter for owners: does your consultant use AI in their own practice, are they billing on outcomes or hours, and can they answer which 20% the human keeps and why? Do it simple. The consulting industry took a shot this week. From where I sit, about time.