#086 - The Evolution of Engineering Deliverables

Clients are using AI to tighten scope and conduct preliminary analysis. Consultancies must deliver higher-density expertise in formats that match how decisions actually get made.

For decades, engineering judgment has been packaged in a predictable format: the report, the drawing, the specification. Static documents, carefully crafted, representing analysis at a fixed point in time. This model exists for good reasons: regulatory requirements, litigation protection, and the simple fact that a PDF is a stable, universally readable format.

But the economic ground beneath this model is shifting, and consultancies that ignore this shift may find themselves scrambling to adapt.

The Client Has New Capabilities

Clients now have access to the same LLM tools that engineers do. They’re using them to prepare scopes, conduct preliminary analysis, and ask better questions before the consultant ever enters the picture.

This “scope tightening” has two effects. On one hand, it’s productive. Clients arrive with a clearer understanding of their needs, which reduces wasted effort on both sides. On the other hand, it carves away portions of the preliminary work that consultancies have historically relied on for revenue.

The baseline has moved.