How will you, as a consultant, decide which AI tool is best for consulting? The most essential factor in deciding on the choice of AI tool is the kind of business a consultant is supporting. For example, a financial advisor will need a separate set of tools when compared to the healthcare consultant.
Based on their functionality, there are three different kinds of AI tools for consultants available today. The struggle almost always is in choosing the right tool.
- Template AI tools provide the right templates to choose from.
- Sketch-driven AI tools are for those who prefer an organic approach for their visual content creation.
- Generative AI tools help users create content from scratch based on prompt commands.
It is observed that consultants almost always need all three kinds of tools to complete their work repetitively.
Typically, the data indicates that AI adoption is rapidly increasing among consultants. Its use is, in fact, spreading like wildfire among consultants.
The widespread use of AI tools and their wildfire growth metrics are indicated through the following data—
- Almost 65% of organizations extensively use generative AI, and the level of use has almost doubled in the past 10 months alone, as noted by McKinsey.
- In 2024, almost 72% of organizations were already using AI adoption techniques, and professional services have shown the largest adoption increase during this period, including the changes in the field of consulting [McKinsey].
- a. According to a survey run by Deloitte, almost 85% of organizations use AI to generate deliverables. This particular result was built on what was learned from 2800+ business leaders.
- b. Around 63% of users use AI for code generation. Almost 53% use it for producing AI-generated images and visual content. Those who are creating analysis and presentations find this kind of AI visual content generation increasingly relevant to their needs.
Here’s a brief chart based on the data Deloitte presents in their survey about the number of users using AI tools for completing different kinds of activities.
Given these tools are empowering experts in consulting, many of them are trying to utilize these to the maximum of their capabilities to optimize their work.
The best AI tools suggested for consultants here is a general list instead of a specialized list as required by each niche.
But most experts need to start with these general tools right before moving to specific niche-based AI tools.
Although accuracy and hallucination remain the main concern, some experts tailor their AI tools to their needs beautifully.
Consultants can browse this list of AI tools as given below.
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35 AI Tools for Consultants to Use in 2026
Even though AI tools are undergoing huge changes, we can safely rely on this list for the rest of the remaining months of 2026 and the upcoming year of 2027.
For Research and Analysis
Research and analysis can be done using these AI tools –
1. Notebook LM
Consultants can use Notebook LM, the best AI tool for research and analysis.
It can analyze PDFs, reports, due diligence documents, and analysts’ reports in seconds.
Typical users of Notebook LM include strategy consultants, researchers, analysts, and even the due diligence teams.
2. Claude
Claude is best for providing deep reasoning, analysis of long-form documents, synthesizing them, and drafting insights.
It can be used by strategy teams, business analysts, and management consultants.
3. Brightwave
Brightwave can be used for investment research, competitive intelligence, and automated market research.
Brightwave is being used by investment professionals, research teams, and financial consultants.
For Client Management
Managing clients is tough and streamlining client management is the right way to go and to achieve it; a set of AI tools can create an indispensable way ahead.
4. Attio
Attio can help network with complicated stakeholders, and it primarily acts as a relationship-centric CRM.
Boutique consulting firms, business development teams, and client partners currently use Attio.
5. HubSpot
From nurturing leads and managing client relationships to tracking sales pipelines, HubSpot can manage it all.
HubSpot is increasingly being used by teams primarily focusing on growth and is being used by small to medium consulting firms as seen in 2026.
6. Salesforce Einstein AI
The Salesforce Einstein AI is present within the Salesforce environment and is used for forecasting, automation, and insights.
The primary benefit of using Salesforce Einstein AI is that it helps you decide better through predictive analysis and automated recommendations.
Who can use Salesforce Einstein AI?
Enterprise sales teams can use it.
Apart from that, revenue operations teams and account management teams can use it too.
7. Microsoft Dynamics 365 + Copilot
It offers a business application suite with AI in the loop.
This provides predictive insights and helps in automating the entire process.
MS Dynamics 365 can improve the sales forecasting process and support provisioning intelligent recommendations.
Which kind of teams can use MS Dynamics 365 + Copilot?
Consulting firms, client service teams, operations and enterprise teams, and even sales teams of different enterprises can use it.
Writing and Communication
Using different writing and communication tools could contribute to improving the writing speed, reduce the time taken to complete a write-up, and significantly reduce the time spent on research.
But the tools you use will determine the accuracy of the entire process. Here are the three best tools tested thoroughly on different parameters.
8. Grammarly
Grammarly offers an AI writing assistant for improving four writing factors significantly.
It helps improve the tone, style, grammar, and clarity of the documents.
Grammarly helps generate error-free communication and produces professional articles.
Who can typically use Grammarly in their daily lives?
Marketing teams, executives, sales teams, analysts, and consultants can use it daily for themselves.
9. Quillbot
It is used for different activities, including checking grammar, tone, and word choice.
Quillbot can significantly improve the writing quality of almost anybody and everybody.
It can be used by consultants, researchers, proposal writers, content teams, and students.
10. Lex
An AI-native writing platform that can be used to draft and refine content in collaboration with others.
With Lex, high-quality content creation can be fast-tracked.
Lex is more suited for thought leadership teams, strategy teams, and content creators.
Business Development and Proposal Development
Developing a business needs planning, and creating proposals needs time. But with the proper use of different AI tools, consultants can easily create plans and proposals as and when necessary.
11. Power BI + Copilot
If you want to analyze and visualize data, then using Copilot with Power BI can be the best option to consider.
Using Power BI makes it easy to generate insights, which is the best way to strengthen proposals and various client recommendations.
Typical users could belong to the consulting teams, the business analytics teams, and the sales leadership teams.
12. Salesforce Einstein AI
Salesforce AI is an AI-driven sales intelligence platform, and the AI tool is embedded right in Salesforce.
With its help, improving the win rate and prioritizing opportunities becomes effortless.
From sales leadership teams to account executives and business development teams, a lot of different user types can use Salesforce Einstein AI.
13. Microsoft Copilot for Sales
MS Copilot is an AI assistant integrated with MS 365 and CRM systems to improve the sales workflow.
The key benefit of MS Copilot Sales lies in its capability to reduce administrative efforts, thereby helping improve the client engagement preparation process.
Sales teams, client partners, and business development teams primarily use Microsoft Copilot, which could significantly optimize different activities within an enterprise.
Meetings and Calls
Although many meeting AI tools exist for consultants, if you want a smooth process, these could be your best assets.
14. MS Teams + Copilot
On Teams, you can find AI-powered meeting summaries, various action items, and a smooth way to conduct meetings.
The main advantage is that it saves you time in notetaking and follow-up tracking.
Client-facing teams, consulting teams, project teams, and leadership teams can use this AI tool for their ease.
15. Zoom AI
Zoom provides AI-powered meeting assistance for creating beautiful summaries, productivity support, and suitable insights.
When using Zoom AI, it can improve effectiveness in conducting meetings, which distinctly reduces the time spent on manual documentation.
Zoom AI is one of the best tools for consulting teams, sales teams, global orgs, and remote teams.
16. Otter.ai
Otter.ai is an Ai transcription platform capable of recording, transcribing, and summarizing conversations.
Otter.ai will ensure the documentation process is correct, and the records are thoroughly searchable.
Project teams, journalists, researchers, and consultants can use it exhaustively.
17. Fireflies. AI
Fireflies.AI offers an AI-powered meeting assistant that captures and analyzes meeting discussions. It will automate the note-taking process and highlight key insights and suitable actions.
Sales teams, customer success teams, consulting teams, and project managers widely use Fireflies.AI for notetaking and recording meeting sessions.
Data Analysis and Visualization
What is the data analysis and visualization involved in this entire process?
Data analysis and validation are processes designed to understand data inflow for making informed decisions. If data reading is difficult, data analysis might be inaccurate due to incorrection visualization of that data.
Using the right tools is the key to improving the data analysis and visualization process.
18. Tableau
Tableau serves as a data visualization platform for generating interactive dashboards alongwith thorough analysis.
With Tableau, you could simplify complex data to improve the decision-making process. Typical users can be the analytics teams, consultants, and business intelligence teams of almost any and every enterprise.
19. ChatGPT ADA
It’s an AI-powered analytics tool capable of exploring, analyzing, and visualizing datasets.
ChatGPT ADA can enable rapid analysis of the analytics without resorting to extensive coding skills. Primary users are analysts, consultants, researchers, and strategy teams.
20. Julius AI
It’s a conversational AI data analysis tool capable of extracting insights and creating rich visualizations. It can make advanced analysis accessible to even non-technical users.
Starting from business analysts, finance teams, consultants, and the operations team, a lot of different team combinations can benefit from using Julius AI.
Creation of Presentations
Millions of presentations are created almost every day, and using AI tools could increase the speed of the creation process.
21. Gamma
It can help produce client-ready presentations, documents, and visual stories in a flash.
This platform is primarily advantageous for consultants, startup founders, marketing teams, and sales teams of various kinds of enterprises.
22. Tome
Tome is focused on developing narratives and storytelling.
Engaging presentations can be created with almost no effort.
It can be used by strategy teams, business development teams, and even executives.
23. PowerPoint Copilot
PowerPoint AI assistant helps create and edit presentations.
It can reduce the slide creation time significantly.
Project teams, consulting teams, sales teams, and executives largely use PowerPoint Copilot.
24. Beautiful. AI
It is a smart presentation software that is capable of automatically applying design best practices.
Professional looking slides are in demand by consultants, marketing teams, sales teams, and business leaders, and they all can use Beautiful.AI to create them.
Knowledge Management
The kind of knowledge management demanded nowadays is only possible when using either of the below-mentioned AI tools.
25. Notion AI
It offers an AI-enhanced workspace for documenting, collaborating, and knowledge sharing. The knowledge capture and retrieval process becomes easier with Notion AI. Usually project teams, product teams, and startups can use it.
26. Guru
Guru is used for knowledge management. The platform is suitable for delivering verified information within specific workflows. Starting from customer support teams to consulting firms, operational teams, including HR teams, can use this platform.
27. Glean
Glean brings forth an enterprise search platform connecting information with suitable systems across the enterprise. Glean can reduce the time spent across multiple applications and is the best AI tool for consultants in this regard.
Knowledge workers, large enterprises, and leadership teams can use Glean.
Market Intelligence
Studying market intelligence is important, and it becomes easier when using some of the best AI tools available for consultants.
28. Crayon
The platform can track competitors and market activity analytics and is the best AI tool for consulting.
Crayon facilitates proactive responses to help with competitive changes.
Crayon can be used by strategy teams, business development teams, and even product marketing teams.
29. SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb brings forth web traffic and market analysis and is one of the best AI tools for consultants.
It helps with benchmarking market positions and enables identification of typical growth opportunities.
Similarweb works best for consulting firms, marketing teams, market research teams, and even strategy teams strategizing enterprise policies and plans.
30. Perplexity
One of the best AI tools for consulting in 2026, Perplexity brings forth an AI-powered answer engine for delivering research-backed responses citing suitable sources.
It accelerates secondary research and helps gather information of different forms and types.
Business development teams, analysts, researchers, and consultants are using Perplexity largely.
31. Alpha Sense
Alpha Sense is an AI-powered market intelligence tool for facilitating business and financial research.
Alpha Sense helps in deciding deep industry insights better.
Investment teams, corporate strategy teams, and management consultants can use this tool.
Mapping Processes
Why are mapping processes important? Here are some of the best AI tools for consultants wanting to map processes.
32. Lucid Chart AI
Lucid Chart is an AI-assisted tool for creating process maps, workflows, and system diagrams and helps in simplifying the visualization of complicated processes.
IT teams can use LucidChart AI too, apart from the operations teams, business analysts, and consultants, and it has been known to be the best AI tool for consulting.
33. FigJam AI
f you want to improve collaboration and idea organization, FigJam AI could be used as a collaborative whiteboard for mapping workflows and for brainstorming sessions.
Starting with design teams, collaboration teams, consulting teams, innovation teams, and project teams, FigJam AI serves the role of a valuable AI tool for many kinds of teams in need of its benefits.
34. Micro-AI
Accelerating process improvement and workshop outcomes, an AI-powered collaboration workspace can be used for planning and process designing.
Micro AI can be used by transformation teams, consultants, and agile and product teams.
35. Visio Copilot
Visio Copilot uses an AI-enhanced process mapping and diagramming tool within the Microsoft Visio environment.
The tool helps document professional processes faster. The Copilot tool is used by enterprise architecture teams, business analysts, consultants, and PMOs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do we need technical expertise for using the best AI tools for consulting?
All these AI tools are designed for business users and come with a user-friendly interface. Those using the tool need minimum technical knowledge.
Are the tools built to support consulting firms of all sizes and shapes?
Yes, most tools are built to support various kinds of businesses, from boutiques to large enterprises.
Can these AI tools for consultants in 2026 be integrated with existing business applications?
Most of the leading tools can be integrated with MS 365, CRM platforms, collaboration tools, and business databases.
How does one choose the right AI tool in the process?
A consultant needs to remember which kind of business they will support and what kind of processes need to be supported when choosing AI tools in the process.
Conclusion
AI tools for consultants are essential for making the business more lucrative. Clients need to verify that the experts they choose understand how to use AI tools for supporting their business. But clients also need to remember that only qualified experts can use business tools in the right way. It means an expert must be procured from a good consulting platform.
VirtUp is one such platform that clients should consider, and it also helps consultants in many ways.
On VirtUp, clients can build long-term business relationships with their experts since VirtUp promotes a no lock-in feature.
Explore the many benefits of using VirtUp as a client consultant platform.
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