Picasso, AI, and the End of the Billable Hour

Severin Sorensen
6 days ago
5 min read

“Wait, you used AI for that? Shouldn’t this cost less?”

If you’re building, prompting, or advising in the AI space, you’ve likely heard this. It’s a fair question—on the surface. But it misses a deeper truth about how real value is created in this new era of speed, automation, and scale.

When clients ask, “Shouldn’t this cost less because AI did the work?” they’re often misplacing the locus of value. The implicit assumption is that effort or time equals worth. But in reality, the true value lies in knowing what to ask, how to guide AI to deliver the right outcomes, and how to turn those results into meaningful business advantage. The ability to prompt with precision, discern patterns, and drive decisions isn’t commoditized—it’s elevated. In this new landscape, expertise isn’t replaced by AI; it’s refracted through it, creating leverage that’s worth more, not less.

The Classic Story: The Engineer and the Chalk Mark

This concept of “knowing what to do” isn’t new. Consider a timeless story:

A factory machine breaks down. Production halts. Panic sets in. A specialist is called. She walks the floor, listens intently, then draws a simple chalk “X” on one part of the machine: “Replace this.” The repair is made. The machine roars back to life. The invoice arrives: $10,000. The factory manager objects: “$10,000? But you were only here five minutes!” The specialist revises the bill: Marking the machine: $1; Knowing where to mark: $9,999. This isn’t just a parable—it’s a principle of value. And in the age of AI, it’s more relevant than ever.

The Leverage Layer

AI, in the hands of a skilled professional, acts as a multiplier—not a discount trigger. Think of it as a force amplifier. The consultant who once took 30 hours to uncover an insight may now do so in three. But what’s been compressed is not the value—it’s the delivery time. Clients aren’t paying for keystrokes; they’re paying for clarity, impact, and momentum. In fact, the faster the insight arrives, the more valuable it becomes. That’s because knowing how to use

AI effectively still requires:

Contextual Understanding: Will this solution work for your exact situation?
Strategic Judgment: Is this the right action, or just a fast one?
Implementation Skill: Can this plug into your people, processes, and priorities?
Ethical Foresight: What are the risks, trade-offs, and downstream consequences?
Continuous Refinement: Can this evolve with you?

Without these elements, it’s like having the food ingredients—but no recipe, and no chef.

Should We Abandon the Billable Hour?

This brings us to a core question: if time is no longer the best proxy for value, why do we still price services that way?

The traditional billable hour model—long the cornerstone of consulting, legal, and executive coaching practices—is increasingly misaligned with the realities of AI-enhanced efficiency. As AI automates routine tasks and accelerates service delivery, professionals must pivot to pricing models that reflect not time spent, but value created.

The Obsolescence of Time-Based Billing

Time-based billing once made sense. It was an easy way to quantify effort. But AI’s capacity to perform complex tasks at unprecedented speeds breaks this equation. For example, AI tools can now draft legal documents, analyze thousands of data points, and generate strategic insights in minutes.

A study by the USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations and WE Communications found that 88% of PR professionals believe AI will increase task efficiency, and 72% expect reduced workloads as a result (Hawkins, 2023). Similarly, the legal industry has been exploring alternative billing models that better reflect outcomes over effort (American Bar Association, 2017).

Understanding Value-Based Pricing

So what should replace the billable hour? Value-based pricing—an approach that centers on the outcomes and benefits a client receives, rather than the inputs involved in getting there.

This model aligns pricing with the client’s perceived value of the result. A consultant who delivers a strategic insight that transforms a client’s trajectory shouldn’t be penalized for doing it faster with AI; they should be valued for making it possible at all.

Implementing this model requires more than changing your invoice. It requires deeper client discovery, clearer articulation of outcomes, and confidence in the transformative potential of your work.

AI as an Enhancer of Expertise

AI doesn’t replace human expertise—it enhances it. Rather than rendering professionals obsolete, AI takes repetitive, time-consuming tasks off their plate, freeing them to focus on strategic thinking. For instance, a consultant can use AI to process vast datasets and quickly surface meaningful patterns, then use their own judgment to interpret those insights and guide clients forward. In executive coaching, AI tools can help analyze behavioral trends, but it’s still the coach who helps the leader grow. This synergy between AI and human insight enhances service quality and sharpens the value professionals bring to the table.

Value Has Always Worked This Way

If this feels like a radical shift, remember: we’ve always paid for expertise—not time. The chalk mark wasn’t the beginning of this idea, and it certainly won’t be the end.

Picasso & the Napkin: A quick sketch, priced not for the minutes it took—but for the decades of mastery behind it.
Top Surgeon: A 15-minute incision, made possible by years of rigorous training and precision.
Senior Lawyer: Spots a $10 million flaw in a contract—not because they worked fast, but because they saw what others missed.
Cybersecurity Expert: Isolates a critical threat in minutes, averting losses that would’ve taken months to recover.
Creative Director: Delivers a campaign-defining tagline—not from hours of effort, but from sharp insight and intuition.

These aren’t exceptions. They’re reminders that real value lies in wisdom, judgment, and precision.

The Future of Professional Services Pricing

As AI continues to evolve, the pressure to adopt value-based models will only grow. Professionals who embrace this shift will position themselves as forward-thinking, client-centered, and impact-driven.

In the new paradigm, success isn’t measured in hours logged—but in breakthroughs achieved. Those who master this shift won’t just survive the AI era. They’ll lead it.

The Final Thought

The integration of AI into professional services is not a threat—it’s a catalyst. It challenges outdated billing models and accelerates a more honest, impactful way to measure and price value. In a world where speed is no longer synonymous with simplicity, and automation delivers at unprecedented pace, it’s tempting to reduce worth to output. But real value lies in expertise—knowing what to do, when to do it, and why it matters. AI doesn’t make that expertise obsolete; it makes it indispensable.

So, the next time you evaluate the cost of an AI-powered solution, don’t ask how long it took to run the prompt—ask how long it took someone to know exactly what to ask in the first place. That’s where the transformation happens. That’s where the magic is.

Here’s to turning your hard-earned wisdom into prompts that delight, ignite, and redefine what’s possible.