A product where the secret sauce is basically a distribution play is going to need a different strategy and demand a different valuation compared to a product where the platform itself is successfully monetizing on a workflow.

Anything substantially new will still require an engineer in the loop. Specifically, if a new design pattern, archtecture, etc is required. AI can only build on its training material - it can't yet have original thoughts.

A quick addendum: The in-housed money furnace can produce material to reinforce and extend the foundations of information technology

It has always been overpriced and had huge margins.

I think what management consultants are really afraid of is being replaced. By AI.

How?

Do you mean by AI? I haven't seen any evidence of this.

It was always possible to get code generated at large volumes for low cost (offshore/outsource market) but we didn't see this upend or replace many (if any) software companies.

LLM generated code is similar, but arguably more expensive and lower quality.

We don't see LLM generated product replacement at scale because code generation is a problem, but it's not the only problem. Low quality can kill a product, but high quality doesn't guarantee success.

There's an entire ecosystem around a successful software offering. An ecosystem that depends on adequately functioning code.

LLMs may be useful for certain tasks (...maybe... - we've always had good options for repetitive code generation) but I certainly wouldn't describe it as "very easily replicable".