This consulting firm is making bespoke AI apps to replace the PowerPoint pitch

West Monroe brings an app to its first client meetings, not a deck.

Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images Consulting firm West Monroe has ditched PowerPoints in favor of introductory apps.

The firm builds tailored apps that showcase AI-driven solutions to client issues.

The goal is to move quickly past initial discussions and toward client outcomes.

When a client calls the mid-market consulting firm West Monroe to discuss supply chain efficiency, it doesn't start by preparing a slide deck for the first meeting.

Instead, it builds a customized app using AI to start the conversation.

"No one's ever been inspired or moved or woken up excited about a PowerPoint," Bret Greenstein, West Monroe's chief AI officer, told Business Insider.

"And yet so much of consulting is to produce a PowerPoint to compel or convince or persuade somebody." Founded in Chicago in 2002, West Monroe has about 2,000 employees.

Since adopting its app-first approach in January, the firm has brought a working demo or app to about a third of first client conversations.

The firm builds the apps to give clients a concrete look at how AI could change their work.

Greenstein said the approach addresses two familiar problems: Consulting firms can spend too long polishing PowerPoint presentations without helping clients visualize what comes next, while pilot projects can take weeks to fund and build without leading anywhere.

The aim is to collapse the traditional deck and proof of concept into a single step: a working product.

For a telecommunications company seeking help with its supply chain, West Monroe first used AI to find publicly available information about its suppliers, business priorities, and technology stack.

It then applied its own supply chain expertise to envision how an agent-powered system could work.