Deliverables are what clients actually pay for. Building polished, structured documents used to take days. This lesson shows you how to use AI to produce first drafts, executive summaries, and slide outlines in a fraction of the time — then refine them to your standard.
There's a wrong way to use AI for consulting deliverables: asking it to write everything from scratch based on nothing. The output is generic, surface-level, and sounds like it came from a template. Clients notice.
The right way: you bring the thinking, the data, and the judgment. AI brings the structure, the first draft, and the polishing. You're still the expert. AI is your extremely fast writing partner.
An executive summary is what the client actually reads. Everything else is backup. Here's how to generate a strong one:
You are a senior management consultant writing an
executive summary for a C-suite audience.
Engagement context:
- Client: [company name and brief description]
- Project scope: [what you were hired to do]
- Key findings: [paste your 5-7 main findings as bullet points]
- Recommendations: [paste your 3-5 recommendations]
Write a 2-page executive summary that:
1. Opens with the single most important finding (not a
description of what we did)
2. Summarizes findings clearly without jargon
3. States each recommendation with a one-sentence rationale
4. Closes with a clear "what happens next" paragraph
Tone: authoritative but accessible. No corporate buzzwords.
Format: full prose paragraphs with bold headers.AI can't build your slides, but it can structure the logic of your deck in minutes. A well-structured outline is 80% of the work — the actual building is mechanical.
You are a McKinsey-trained consultant building a
presentation for a [type of meeting: board update /
strategy review / project kickoff].
Audience: [describe who will be in the room]
Goal of the presentation: [what decision do you want
them to make, or what do you want them to understand?]
Key content: [paste your main findings and recommendations]
Time limit: [20 / 30 / 45 minutes]
Create a slide-by-slide outline. For each slide include:
- Slide number and title
- The one key message of that slide (in bold)
- 3-4 bullet points of supporting content
- Type of visual that would work best (chart, table,
diagram, or text-only)
Use the Pyramid Principle: lead with the conclusion,
then support it. Total slides: [10-15].Consulting memos are how you communicate findings between formal deliverables. They need to be short, clear, and actionable. Here's the prompt:
Write a consulting memo with the following details:
TO: [recipient and title]
FROM: [your name/firm]
RE: [subject in 10 words or less]
DATE: [date]
Purpose of the memo: [one sentence]
Key points to make: [paste 4-6 bullet points]
Recommended action: [what should the reader do?]
Context they need: [any background they need to understand]
Format: professional consulting memo. 400-600 words.
Opening line should state the purpose immediately —
no "I am writing to inform you" throat-clearing.
Close with a specific call to action and a date.AI drafts are first drafts. They need your editing pass. Here's the prompt that makes that pass faster:
Review this document and give me:
1. Any sentences that are vague or could be more specific
2. Any claims that need supporting data or a caveat
3. Any jargon that a non-expert might not understand
4. The three places where the logic is weakest
5. One recommendation to make the opening stronger
[PASTE YOUR DRAFT]Take a real or realistic consulting scenario and build a complete executive summary using the prompts above.
Take the last deliverable you sent to a client. Run it through the editing pass prompt. What did Claude flag? Are those legitimate weaknesses? If so, build the fixes into your standard process.