With worldwide spending on artificial intelligence projected to reach $2.52 trillion this year, the initial corporate fascination with chatbots and pilot programs has turned into a high-stakes reckoning over cost. Companies are facing a steep financial hurdle: buying cloud computing infrastructure or software licenses is a straightforward capital expense, but turning those tools into bottom-line productivity requires immense operational groundwork. An advanced AI model remains ineffective without clean pipelines to feed it, employees trained to navigate it, and strict oversight to protect proprietary corporate data.

The leaders on this year’s list work across both the technical architecture and the human operations required for AI to succeed. On the technical side, their work includes modernizing data environments and deploying agentic systems. From a management perspective, they advise boards on governance and risk, redesign workflows, and identify measurable savings or growth opportunities. Ultimately, their value is measured less by the power of the technology itself and more by whether their advice converts to enduring results.

To determine this year’s list, consultants and leaders were evaluated based on depth of specialized experience, advisory impact, industry influence, and leadership within their firm. The individuals recognized here represent some of the most notable AI transformation consultants in the industry today. Please join us in celebrating The Top Artificial Intelligence Consultants and Leaders of 2026.

Bhushan Sethi
Firm: PwC
Title: Partner

Bhushan Sethi is a Partner at PwC with more than 25 years of experience spanning strategy, workforce, and AI-led transformation. He advises organizations on AI strategy, operating models, roadmaps, and business cases, with particular attention to how artificial intelligence changes workforce planning and the design of work. His experience includes launching enterprise AI upskilling programs and defining functional transformation programs across front-office and enabling functions. Bhushan is currently advising organizations on workforce strategy and planning for human-agentic AI environments.

He also serves as Lead Client Partner for a Fortune 200 financial institution, overseeing the client relationship, delivery quality, and strategic account growth. Within PwC, Bhushan previously co-led the Global People & Organization practice for six years, helping oversee a business that reached more than $2 billion and included over 10,000 practitioners. He also led the U.S. Financial Services People & Organization practice for 10 years and the firm’s global workforce strategy capability for eight years.

Beyond client work, Bhushan teaches strategy consulting at the NYU Stern School of Business. He co-authored “AI Works for Governments” with Google, examining the economic potential of AI in emerging markets, and contributed to a G20 policy brief on gender inequity and AI. Bhushan holds AI leadership certificates from Wharton Executive Education and Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Eric Maroyan
Firm: RSM US
Title: Managing Director

Eric Maroyan is a Managing Director in Technology Risk at RSM US, advising C-suite leaders, audit committees, and boards on AI governance, digital transformation risk, enterprise risk management, and technology adoption decisions. His work centers on the accountability structures organizations need as they adopt AI systems, particularly in areas involving automation, vendor dependencies, controls, and human oversight.

Eric designed and delivered the AI Risk Compass Framework, which integrates AI model behavior risk, data lineage accountability, human decision ownership, and regulatory defensibility. He also helps organizations build AI governance operating models that embed continuous risk monitoring, predictive risk intelligence, and automated control frameworks into audit and compliance programs. His advisory work has included guiding Fortune 500 boards through AI adoption roadmaps, cybersecurity disclosure readiness, third-party concentration risk, and CAIO-style leadership models that connect AI strategy with compliance and business growth.

Before joining RSM, Eric spent eight years at Deloitte as a senior manager in technology advisory services. In that role, he led IT audit and risk advisory engagements for Fortune 100 clients and served as IT audit lead on PCAOB-regulated engagements. His earlier roles included internal audit and controls leadership positions at Collective Brands, Boston Private, and Shoppers Drug Mart. A licensed CPA, Eric holds a master's degree in accounting and audit from The University of Texas at Dallas and completed executive education at Columbia Business School.

Bret Greenstein
Firm: West Monroe
Title: Chief AI Officer

Bret Greenstein is Chief AI Officer at West Monroe, leading the firm’s AI strategy across client delivery, commercial offerings, and workforce adoption. Since joining the firm in 2025 as its first Chief AI Officer, he has focused on expanding West Monroe’s applied AI capabilities, including agentic AI services, enterprise AI tooling, and enablement programs that help employees use AI in client work. His remit includes shaping AI-enabled offerings across industries, embedding AI into consulting delivery, and building the governance and training needed for broader firmwide adoption.

Bret brings more than 30 years of experience in AI, data, cloud, and emerging technology leadership. Before joining West Monroe, he was a partner and generative AI leader at PwC, focusing on AI offerings, alliances, and go-to-market strategy. He previously served as global head of AI and analytics at Cognizant and held multiple senior leadership roles at IBM, including vice president of Watson Internet of Things and global CIO for emerging markets.

Across his career, Bret has advised Fortune 500 executives on technology strategy and helped build AI and data practices at large consulting and technology organizations. He has spoken at major industry forums, including TED AI, and holds multiple U.S. technology patents. Bret holds a master's degree in manufacturing systems engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and completed executive education in business strategy at Harvard Business School.

Michael Tatschl
Firm: Simon-Kucher
Title: Partner

Michael Tatschl is a Partner at Simon-Kucher and Co-Head of Simon-Kucher Elevate, the firm's digital consulting division. Based in Vienna, he helps clients connect AI, data, digital channels, and commercial strategy to improve growth, pricing, sales, and customer engagement. His AI work is especially focused on turning experimentation into commercial programs with clear use cases, business ownership, and measurable value.

Michael has more than 15 years of consulting experience and has led multi-year digital transformation programs from strategy through implementation. His work has included measurement architecture, market testing of new offerings, behavioral sales initiatives, as-a-service business models, and new direct-to-consumer and B2B online channels. He has led more than 150 projects combining consulting and advanced analytics, including AI-powered solutions for sales automation, RFQ and tender-response intelligence, Next-Best-X recommendations, digital sales enablement, and scalable digital customer interactions.

Beyond client work, Michael regularly speaks and writes on emerging technologies, generative AI, and the future of commercial operations. He is also involved in internal AI initiatives, including the development of agentic workflows and the creation of an AI innovation lab within Simon-Kucher Elevate. Before joining Simon-Kucher, he spent more than nine years at A.T. Kearney in roles including engagement manager, associate, and senior business analyst. Michael holds an economics degree from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and completed executive education at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Paolo Pellegrini
Firm: Metyis
Title: Partner

Paolo Pellegrini is a Partner at Metyis, where he helps large organizations use data and artificial intelligence to improve strategic decision-making and develop AI-driven business models. Based in Milan, he works across functions including marketing, sales, finance, and human resources, with a focus on embedding analytics into how companies operate and identify growth opportunities. His experience covers both Italian and international markets.

In 2019, Paolo led the creation of an AI Product Factory designed to turn data science capabilities into scalable business applications. The team developed an Italian LLM that combined generative models with optimization logic, allowing the system to create marketing content and select the versions most likely to improve campaign and customer relationship management performance. The initiative reduced manual work while supporting personalization at scale.

Before joining Metyis, Paolo held leadership roles at Italian consulting firms focused on data-driven transformation for large European enterprises. Earlier in his career, he was a researcher at the Digital Innovation Observatories within the School of Management at Politecnico di Milano, studying emerging enterprise applications of big data, data science, and cloud computing. Paolo holds a doctorate in management engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan and a master’s degree in management from MIP Politecnico di Milano.

Gwellyn Daandels
Firm: Virtusa
Title: Global Head of AI Solutions and Platform

Gwellyn Daandels is Global Head of AI Solutions and Platform at Virtusa, overseeing the strategy, development, and deployment of platforms that help organizations orchestrate and manage AI agents at scale. His responsibilities extend across the supporting elements required for enterprise AI systems, including data management, model improvement, security, and explainability. With more than two decades of experience, Gwellyn brings expertise in generative AI, information architecture, data warehousing, solution design, and large-scale digital transformation.

Before taking on his current role, Gwellyn led Virtusa’s CTO office for Europe and served as global data and AI consulting lead. In those positions, he helped develop service offerings, methodologies, frameworks, and consulting platforms for clients expanding their data and AI capabilities. He also supported solution consulting and architecture for complex digital transformation engagements.

Gwellyn previously spent more than 10 years at Cognizant, holding leadership roles in AI and analytics, enterprise information management, digital solutioning, and solution architecture. His industry experience includes software, management consulting, insurance, and luxury goods. Gwellyn holds an MBA from the University of Bern and has completed advanced AI credentials through Anthropic, MIT, and Google Cloud.

Matt Pearce
Firm: General Dynamics Information Technology
Title: Solutions Director of Emerging Technology

Matt Pearce is Solutions Director of Emerging Technology at General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), working on AI, machine learning, and emerging technology solutions for government and commercial environments. He previously served as one of GDIT’s AI/ML capability leads and co-led the Luna AI Digital Accelerator, supporting AI and data management initiatives across complex mission settings. Matt began his career in 1997 and brings nearly 30 years of experience designing and delivering production-grade enterprise systems.

His technical work spans AI/ML architecture, computer vision, geospatial systems, cybersecurity, cloud and hybrid environments, and edge deployments. Before joining GDIT, Matt was a technical director at Freedom Consulting Group, where he led data science, AI/ML, and data management programs for Intelligence Community customers. His work there also included modernizing legacy systems, supporting more than 100 software developers, and developing prototype solutions for automated license plate recognition and satellite imagery-based object detection using TensorFlow and PyTorch pipelines on AWS.

Earlier in his career, Matt co-founded TerraMajic, a video analytics and geospatial technology company, and served as its chief technology officer. He also held senior architecture and technical leadership roles at ManTech and other technology firms. Matt holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in meteorology and atmospheric science from Penn State University and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in computational data science and machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University.

Mehdi Goodarzi
Firm: Hexaware Technologies
Title: Senior Vice President

Mehdi Goodarzi is a Senior Vice President at Hexaware Technologies and leads the firm’s AI business unit. His work at Hexaware has included two related areas of responsibility: first, helping shape and scale the firm’s enterprise AI transformation practice, and more recently leading work focused on the AI economy, including sovereign AI strategy and data pre-training and post-training services for enterprise and government clients.

Mehdi has more than 23 years of experience in enterprise AI, digital transformation, industrial IoT, and data-driven business models. Prior to Hexaware, he was a managing director and partner at Alvarez & Marsal, where he co-founded and scaled the firm’s Digital and Generative AI practice. His work there included advising private equity firms and portfolio companies on AI-led value creation, supporting AI-enabled turnarounds, and delivering enterprise AI transformation programs across sectors such as financial services, healthcare, technology, lodging, and education technology. One listed engagement delivered $56 million in savings for a global plasma company through work involving spend optimization, pricing, and platform modernization.

Earlier in his career, Mehdi spent nearly nine years at Accenture in its global industrial IoT and Industry X.0 practice, with leadership responsibilities across North America, Greater China, Japan, and other international markets. He also spent more than 10 years at Nokia, focused on advanced analytics, IoT, telecom operators, customer experience management, and social analytics solutions. Mehdi holds an MBA in entrepreneurship, design, and innovation and a master’s degree in telecommunications engineering from Imperial College London.

Sundeep Kumar
Firm: Sigmoid
Title: Vice President of Products and Account Management

Sundeep Kumar is Vice President of Products and Account Management at Sigmoid, working with enterprise clients on data, analytics, and AI programs across consumer goods, retail, life sciences, and manufacturing. His role connects product strategy, account leadership, and execution, with a focus on helping organizations move from fragmented analytics environments to scalable systems that support faster decision-making.

Sundeep’s work includes AI, generative AI, and agentic AI applications across marketing, customer analytics, supply chain, R&D, and commercial operations. He has led programs designed to embed intelligent systems into core business processes, including retail analytics initiatives that delivered more than $25 million in sales uplift through improved planograms and shelf strategies. He has also supported enterprise adoption of GenAI and agentic AI through unified platforms that bring together data, KPIs, and workflows, enabling insights up to 85% faster and reducing redundant reporting by 20%.

Prior to his current role, Sundeep held product and account leadership positions at Sigmoid, including senior account director for big data products and services, senior product manager, and product manager. Earlier in his career, he worked at Mu Sigma, Cognizant Technology Solutions, and Infosys in roles spanning analytics consulting, business analysis, process excellence, automation, and product development. Sundeep holds an MBA in operations and strategy management from Great Lakes Institute of Management and a bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Sir M Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology.

Karthik Ragunathan
Firm: Tredence
Title: SVP, Practice Head – AI & ML

Karthik Ragunathan is SVP, Practice Head – AI & ML at Tredence, leading artificial intelligence and machine learning work across industry and solution areas. His experience spans generative AI, agents, LLMOps, conversational intelligence, pricing, promotion, personalization, forecasting, optimization, experimentation, customer analytics, marketing analytics, and credit risk modeling.

Karthik spent more than 10 years at Tiger Analytics before joining Tredence, serving as partner and AI/ML practice head. In that role, he led a 1,000-member AI and machine learning practice and delivered AI programs for Fortune clients across retail, consumer packaged goods, insurance, and banking. His LinkedIn profile also notes a track record of scaling AI programs from zero to more than $15 million.

Earlier in his career, Karthik was lead researcher in data science and machine learning at Siemens Corporate Research, working in New Jersey and Bangalore. His research included machine learning, predictive maintenance, anomaly detection for gas turbine sensor data, clustering algorithms for power generation, audio analytics for surveillance, IoT statistical signal processing, and computer vision deployed at the edge. He has authored five IEEE publications and has six published patents. Karthik holds a master's degree in information technology with a focus on statistical signal processing from the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore.

Rick Young
Firm: Sikich
Title: Senior Director

Rick Young is a Senior Director at Sikich and leads the firm's Data & AI practice. He works with organizations on data strategy, AI strategy, data governance, and modern cloud-based data management, helping clients improve decision-making and build stronger foundations for enterprise AI adoption. His experience spans healthcare, financial services, retail, manufacturing, communications, information services, and travel and hospitality.

Since joining Sikich in 2023, Rick has played a central role in building the firm's Data & AI capabilities, including service offerings in data governance, information management modernization, advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and intelligent automation. He helps organizations move from pilot-stage experimentation to production-scale AI deployment, with an emphasis on governance, modern data architecture, and measurable business outcomes. He also leads multidisciplinary teams across data engineering, analytics, and AI and machine learning.

Rick previously held data and analytics leadership roles at North Highland and ThreeBridge Solutions and founded 3Sage Consulting, a firm focused on enterprise data strategy, analytics, machine learning, and modern data platforms. In addition to his client work, he serves on the board of directors for the Technology Association of Georgia's Data & AI Governance Society. Rick holds a bachelor's degree in decision information management from the University of Florida Warrington College of Business.

Vadim Belski
Firm: ScienceSoft
Title: Head of Artificial Intelligence & Principal Architect

As Head of Artificial Intelligence and Principal Architect at ScienceSoft, Vadim Belski leads the firm’s AI strategy and architecture. His work centers on secure, scalable, and compliant AI systems for regulated industries, including healthcare, insurance, and finance. In this role, he defines ScienceSoft’s AI vision, aligns technology initiatives with business outcomes, establishes governance for responsible AI adoption, and supports priority projects as an AI consultant and architect.

Vadim joined ScienceSoft in 2007 as a web engineer and has since held roles spanning software architecture, project management, delivery management, and enterprise architecture. As Principal Architect, he helps clients design large-scale enterprise architectures built for scalability, adaptability, security, and regulatory compliance. His project work has included a digital signage application powered by AR and AI, and more recently, a HIPAA-compliant Healthcare AI Voice Scheduler that integrated Amazon Nova Sonic speech-to-speech technology with the LiveKit Media Server.

Beyond client delivery, Vadim mentors ScienceSoft architects and engineers and leads internal AI engineering initiatives, including ScienceSoft AI Club and an AI Engineering Deep Dive lab focused on production-ready AI agents on AWS. He holds certifications related to healthcare information systems, AWS solutions architecture, enterprise architecture, blockchain solution architecture, AI engineering, agentic AI, and LLM development.