In this Quick Take on Smart Consulting Sourcing, Hélène Laffitte, CEO at Consulting Quest, explains how to track what consultants are actually delivering without turning into the client who needs a daily task-by-task progress report.

Discover the two patterns that quietly wreck consulting projects, consultants left without direction or sponsorship, and consultants managed so closely nobody can move, and why the internal project manager's real job is making decisions when consultants get stuck, connecting them to the right people, and protecting the project from the organization's own tendency to slow it down, all in three minutes.

Can AI replace procurement when buying consulting? The narrative suggests automation is inevitable — the reality is more nuanced.

In this episode of Smart Consulting Sourcing, Hélène Laffitte explains what AI actually changes in consulting procurement — and what it doesn’t.

AI isn’t replacing buyers — it’s exposing weak briefs, loose evaluation criteria, and superficial proposal analysis. It can sharpen RFPs, structure comparisons, and challenge fuzzy thinking. But it cannot assume accountability, interpret organisational context, or distinguish persuasive language from proven capability.

Hélène outlines where AI genuinely strengthens the sourcing process, where its limits become clear, and why human judgment remains the critical control point.

From avoiding “algorithmic overconfidence” to using AI as a disciplined challenger, this episode offers a grounded perspective on smarter sourcing in the age of automation.

Tune in to learn how to make AI your procurement ally — not your substitute.

In this Quick Take on Smart Consulting Sourcing, Hélène Laffitte, CEO at Consulting Quest, explains how to handle conflicts of interest in consulting projects and why they represent a critical risk in professional services.

Discover how companies can manage consulting conflicts of interest in a practical and balanced way by setting clear boundaries in consulting contracts and MSAs, reinforcing commitments at the project level, and monitoring risks over time — all in under three minutes.