Unum11 vs traditional strategy consulting
A traditional strategy engagement takes six to twelve weeks and costs five to six figures. Unum11 returns a sourced, evidence-labelled report in under a day for $500 a month. The trade is real: Unum11 wins on speed, cost, sourcing discipline and auditability, and loses on judgement, access to private information, and accountability.
| Dimension | Traditional strategy consulting | Unum11 |
|---|---|---|
| Turnaround | 6–12 weeks, typical for a scoped strategy engagement | Under one day. A deep run holds an 8-hour wall-clock budget. |
| Cost to the buyer | Five to six figures per engagement | $500 per month, unlimited runs |
| Customer evidence | Interviews and surveys with real people, usually tens to low hundreds | 2,046,200 modelled choices from 40,200 personas — a simulation, not real people |
| Sourcing discipline | Varies by firm. Typically endnotes; unsourced claims are common in the body | Every resolved field carries one of 4 evidence states, inline, next to the claim |
| Says what it does not know | Rarely, and usually in a methodology appendix | DOCUMENTED_GAP printed in the body text where the missing figure would have gone |
| Judgement about your specific situation | A partner who has seen forty comparable situations and can tell you which one you are in | None. It has read the public record and run a model. |
| Access to private information | Management interviews, internal data rooms, proprietary benchmark sets | Public sources only, unless you supply the books |
| Accountability for the recommendation | A named firm with a reputation and a contract | A document. Nobody is on the hook if the advice is wrong. |
| Consistency across reports | Depends on the team assigned | Identical pipeline every run, graded on the same 9-category rubric |
| Auditability | The deliverable. Working papers rarely leave the firm | Full JSON trace of every request, model reply and decision ships with the report |
Where Unum11 loses
Three places, and none of them are close. A consulting partner has seen forty situations like yours and can tell you which one you are in; Unum11 has read the public record and run a model. A firm gets management interviews and internal data; Unum11 gets public sources unless you hand it the books. And a firm is accountable — Unum11 produces a document, and nobody is on the hook if it is wrong.
Where Unum11 wins
The research-and-assembly half of an engagement. The weeks a team spends pulling filings, building a market picture, running the numbers and drafting a deck is the part that compresses to hours. And two properties that are genuinely hard to buy from a firm at any price: every claim carries its source inline, and the complete working record — every request, every model reply, every decision — ships with the deliverable as a JSON trace.
Who should use which
Use a consulting firm when
- The decision is large enough that accountability matters more than cost
- The answer depends on private information only management can give you
- You need someone to stand behind the recommendation in a board room
- The problem is genuinely novel and has no public analogue
Use Unum11 when
- You need a defensible written view on a specific company, quickly
- The company has a public record worth researching
- You will do the judgement yourself and want the assembly done
- You need the same analysis repeated across many companies
Common questions about Unum11 vs consulting
Is Unum11 a replacement for a strategy consulting firm?
No. Unum11 replaces the research-and-assembly half of an engagement — the weeks spent gathering public data, building a market picture and drafting a deck. It does not replace a partner’s judgement about your specific situation, access to management, or accountability for the recommendation.
How much does an AI-generated strategy report cost compared to a consulting engagement?
A Unum11 seat is $500 per month with unlimited runs, and the measured API cost of producing one report is $1.61 to $6.95 depending on the model chain. A traditional scoped strategy engagement typically runs five to six figures over six to twelve weeks.
Where does Unum11 lose to a human consultant?
Three places, stated plainly: judgement about your specific situation, access to private information such as management interviews and internal data, and accountability. Unum11 produces a document; nobody is on the hook if its advice is wrong.
Consulting cost and duration ranges above are typical published ranges for scoped strategy engagements, not a quote from or comparison to any named firm. Unum11 figures are measured; see what a report contains and the stated limitations.