AI tools for management consultants
Ultramarine Work reads the data room exports, interview notes and working models in your engagement folder, and hands back Excel workbooks, Word memos and PowerPoint decks a partner can defend in the room.
Cost-out-SteerCo.pptxExampleAsk it for
“Size the US commercial HVAC service market bottom-up from installed base and service contracts, with a source for every input and a top-down cross-check.”
Market-sizing-US.xlsx“Build a compliance matrix for the county transit RFP, draft the technical section against its evaluation criteria and flag any attachment named but missing.”
RFP-response.docx“Turn the cost diagnostic findings into the SteerCo deck for June 21, 14 slides under one governing message, each slide titled with its takeaway.”
Cost-out-SteerCo.pptx“Normalize the supplier names in this FY24 AP extract and build the spend cube by category, plant and cost center for the cost-out workstream.”
Spend-cube-FY24.xlsx“Trace list price down to pocket price for the top 50 customers of the Reno DC and rank where rebates and freight absorb the most margin.”
Price-waterfall.xlsx“Tie out the draft CDD report against the financial model and flag every figure or exhibit that has no support.”
CDD-page-turn.pdf
How it works
- 1
Drop the engagement folder in
You bring the data room exports, CRM pulls, interview transcripts and expert call notes, plus the phase-one tracking model, the RFP and the deck template your firm runs on.
- 2
Ask for the piece of work
Ask the way you would brief an analyst, and say what done looks like. You get Excel workbooks with live formulas, Word memos and decks, and every figure shows the file it came from. It asks before reading a site for the first time.
- 3
Review before the client sees it
Trace each figure to its source, cut what a partner would question and make the recommendation yourself. It drafts and checks, and nothing goes out without your sign-off.
Inside the Management Consulting mode
Executive storyline and decks
Turns findings into a dot-dash storyline, then ghost decks with action titles and the exhibits that prove each title.
Proposals and RFP responses
Drafts the RFP and tender responses against a compliance matrix of every instruction, fills in the SF330 forms and writes the past-performance sections.
Statement of work
Writes the SOW, performance work statement or SOO that scopes the work, including what gets delivered, what is excluded and how changes are handled.
Project budget and cost forecast
Tracks fee burn and committed costs against budget, and rebuilds a bottom-up EAC every month, so you see the overrun before the partner does.
Tie-out and page-turn review
Page-turns banker books, CIMs and QoE reports, traces each figure to its support and leaves tickmarks on whatever could not be tied.
Market sizing and evidence synthesis
Triangulates the market size from bottom-up counts and top-down reports, and pools expert calls, interviews and surveys with a source on every input.
Business case and capital allocation
Builds the NPV, IRR and payback case behind a capital request, and checks a build-versus-buy or prioritization against what the client’s committee will ask.
Customer segmentation
Segments customers from transaction or survey data, shows the evidence behind the segment count and leaves a rule that classifies new customers.
Pricing and packaging
Designs the Van Westendorp or Gabor-Granger study to the method’s rules and reads price points and tiers off the curves.
Price elasticity and benchmarking
Estimates elasticity from transaction data that strips out promotions and seasonality, and builds competitor price indexes weighted by volume.
Product and customer profitability
Walks list price down the discount, rebate and freight steps to pocket price, sizes the leakage at each step and allocates cost-to-serve to true margin.
Price increase rollout
Checks every contract’s notice and adjustment terms, builds the cost bridge for the customer letter and screens differential pricing against Robinson-Patman.
Sustainability and decarbonization
Tests the target against SBTi criteria, ranks abatement measures by cost per tCO2e on a MACC and sequences the plan from your GHG baseline.
Commercial due diligence
Asks the market and customer questions that decide the deal, pulls the evidence from expert calls and the data room, and stress-tests the management case.
Value creation and transformation
Sizes the cost and revenue levers, builds the 100-day plan with owners and tracks benefits against the bridge the IC signed off.
Technology due diligence
Sorts tech DD findings into remediable or thesis-breaking, prices every fix and puts that cost beside the risk the IC has to weigh.
Operating metrics and reviews
Produces the QBR pack, from ARR bridges and cohort retention to pipeline coverage and forecast roll-ups, with definitions written once and reused.
Workload capacity and staffing model
Converts volumes and workload standards into FTEs, shifts and overtime, and names the bottleneck that caps throughput.
Spend cube analysis
Normalizes supplier names in the raw AP extract, classifies the spend and measures savings as reduction or avoidance against the stated baseline.
Should-cost model
Builds the should-cost estimate from BOM, routing hours and machine rates, and shows the gap against the quote line by line for the negotiation.
Bid tabulation and leveling
Levels subcontractor bids against a scope sheet, prices the gaps and counts buyout savings only where scope is like for like.
Distribution network and cost-to-serve
Compares network scenarios on landed cost and on service by customer, channel and DC footprint, and states what each option costs.
Inventory policy and performance
Drafts the safety stock, reorder points and min/max policy by ABC/XYZ class, and reviews turns, days on hand and stockouts for the monthly health check.
- Office skills
- Excel, Word, PowerPoint, PDF
- Tools
- Read, edit and write files, Search files, Run code, Search and read the web, View images
- Connectors
- SharePoint, Google Drive, Gmail, and additional custom connectors
- House style
- Your fonts, layouts and rules, on every file
Who it’s for
Consultants at management, strategy and operations firms and independent consultants who work across growth, deal and operating engagements, from analyst to partner.
Questions
Will it invent market numbers or interview quotes?
It can, which is why every number and statement carries its source file, and why it notes where it could not find or reconcile something instead of guessing. The 14.3% CAGR that appears in no report, the quote that drifts into a paraphrase and the transposed digits all survive a casual read, so the check stays with you. Trace each figure and each quote back to the transcript or data room before the client sees anything.
Can we use it on client material under our NDA?
Your client’s contract decides this, not the software. NDA silence is not permission, so read the letter. Ultramarine Work changes files only in the project’s folder. When a request needs it, it can read files elsewhere on your computer, never passwords, keys or app data, and you can turn that off in settings. The model runs on Paper Instruments’ servers, so the content it works on is sent there to be processed. Paper Instruments is SOC 2 Type II, and our security and compliance details are on our compliance page.
Do we have to tell the client we used AI?
That depends on the engagement letter, the client’s own AI rules and your firm’s policy, not on us. Professional bodies put the duty on the consultant to disclose when AI materially shaped the advice, and to be able to explain how a result was produced. The usual fix is a sentence in the engagement letter naming where AI helps and what you review before delivery.
Can it run the expert calls and customer interviews?
No, the calls stay with your team, and it never joins one or talks to your customers. It drafts the interview guide, turns the transcripts and notes you give it into themes with verbatim quotes, and flags any theme only one interviewee raised, so you know which findings rest on a single source. You book the experts and own the attestation and MNPI rules those calls carry.
Who answers for it if the client deck is wrong?
You do, the same as if an associate had built it. Professional codes for consultants leave accountability for AI-assisted work with the person or firm that signs the deliverable. The app drafts, builds and checks, and it keeps a source beside every claim, but the judgment call on what the client sees is yours.