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Data has always been considered the currency of modern management consulting. Collect enough data, run it through myriad analyses, and one derives “knowledge.” Consultants then apply that knowledge to a business problem, which results in recommendations for improvement.

Sounds like a simple formula. Yet the Cambridge Analytica imbroglio offers a disturbing view on how that equation is changing … and not necessarily to the benefit of consultants.

Setting aside politics, what the current situation exposes is that in today’s hyper-connected world, “data,” “analysis,” and “knowledge” mean different things to end users. Business executives question the efficacy of consultants when consultants breathlessly tout the virtures of big data and analytics.

Here’s the thing, predictive analytics supposedly takes away bad outcomes by eliminating those scenarios before they can be applied. If allegations prove true, Cambridge’s personality analyses were used to force an outcome that was just that — forced.

Pick your movie based on your generation: Wargames or Edge of Tomorrow. In each, artificial intelligence creates untenable outcomes until humans intervene.

More than 20 years ago, Bill Gates famously said “Content is King” when it comes to the Internet. All the current hysteria around AI, analytics, big data, IOT seems to riff off Gates’ endorsement; you could replace “content” with any of those terms and a coronation would be in order.

So what does that have to do with consulting? Well, consultants who jump too far onto the data hype wagon may lose sight of the primary advantage that makes consulting valuable — consultants themselves!