I think it’s a bit of both. Sometimes the people hiring them are truly clueless. The kinds of reports that management consultants make seem really well thought out and intelligent. Other times, upper management wants to make a big decision, and they think it’s the right one, but they need something to show they considered all the alternatives and that an outside source agrees with them.

Also, management consultants are very stupid, but they’re clever in a very narrow area. That’s why they succeed with upper management, because like LLMs, upper managers think they’re clever.