The Billable Hour Is Broken: AI Compresses 10-Hour Tasks Into 45 Minutes

A growing chorus of professionals in law and consulting is grappling with the collapse of time-based billing models as AI tools make previously lengthy work nearly instantaneous.

The billable hour — the foundational economic unit of law firms, consultancies, and professional services — is facing an existential reckoning. As @jimcarter_third put it plainly: "AI broke the logic entirely. You can do in 45 mins what used to take 10 hrs."

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