AI Makes Your Firm Faster. Maister Explains Why It Doesn't Make You Richer.

Every professional services firm is adopting AI right now. Most are seeing speed gains — drafts in minutes, research in hours, code in seconds. Almost none are seeing proportional profit gains. Some are seeing the opposite: delivery gets faster, revenue stays flat, and margin pressure grows. Why? Because speed of generation is not leverage. And leverage — where profit actually comes from in a professional firm — was explained with painful clarity by David Maister over 30 years ago. His model didn't predict AI. But it explains precisely what AI breaks, what it doesn't, and where the money actually moves. If you run a practice, lead a delivery org, or make decisions about how your firm sells and staffs work, this matters more than your AI adoption roadmap. A Quick Maister Refresher For those who read Managing the Professional Service Firm a decade ago (and those who keep meaning to), here's the core of it. Maister observed that all professional work falls into three types: Brains Gray Ha