About this episode

Marissa Thomas discusses the challenges and insights of launching Unity Advisory, an AI-enabled consulting firm, with Emma Carroll.

Marissa Thomas, CE O and C o-founder of Unity Advisory, joined Emma Carroll, Head of Content at Source, on the latest episode of our The Future of the Firm podcast to discuss the learnings and challenges of combining deep expertise with AI-enabled delivery to create a new advisory firm that's fit for the modern market. Marissa shared her insights on the following matters and more: How co-founders Thomas and Steve Varley saw a disruptive opportunity from three angles—AI and other exciting technologies, what experts want from their careers, and what clients really need—to launch Unity Advisory in March 2025 . One benefit of launching a firm in today's landscape is being able to take a comprehensive AI approach: Unity Advisory is "AI born, not AI-retrofitted". Unity strives to focus on the service areas where clients want more choice, feel there is a supply shortage, or are inconsistently served. Having found that the traditional hours and rates model is not well-loved by clients, Unity is using a combination of fixed and outcomes-based fee s , including fees linked to metrics like satisfaction and cost savings . The combination of engineering or coding skills and deep technical…

People in this episode

Host: Emma Carroll

Guest: Marissa Thomas

Topics covered

• AI-enabled consulting
• disruptive business models
• client needs
• expertise in consulting
• fee structures
• modern advisory firms

Keywords

• Unity Advisory
• AI consulting
• business disruption
• fee structures
• client satisfaction
• expertise
• modern market

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Unity Advisory, Source, Business Leader's Voice, Mars

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