AI "gains" to business unsustainable

I was having a conversation over the weekend with a family member who could probably be described as a power user. Works for a large business consultancy firm, billing out his hours to other businesses.

He described to me how a task that would have previously taken him a day now takes a few minutes plus a read through the output thanks to some fork of Claude they have got, then ping it off to the client.

At the moment his company has found a sweet spot of saving a bunch of time and money doing the work, but then selling that work at presumably their usual exorbitant London consultancy rates. Having their cake and eating it. He was boasting about being able to write a full risk analysis report between golf swings.

But what happens when the clients start to figure out they can do the work themselves for the low low price of a Claude subscription? Or start insisting they only pay for 5 minutes billable work because that's what the AI spent on it?

Maybe this is old hat, but I haven't seen this point made much. The risks to employment of entry level employees are clear, but my point is once firms like the one I mention have eliminated all their clerical staff, and streamlined their business to the point it's just one guy and Claude spitting out reports, what are the clients actually paying for? Are these consultancy firms making a rod for their own back?