Independent consultants, commonly called freelancers, are no longer just short-term resources for agencies anymore.

They are now at the core of a new model: networks of international, highly-skilled professionals, who can solve clients’ complex challenges.

Following the shock that Covid represented for communications professionals, in the midst of a rising AI era, the traditional agency model is being shaken. While agencies and brands have been working with independent consultants for decades, what was once an occasional solution to fill a gap, is now increasingly becoming a deliberate way of building senior, dedicated teams.

The question for the client is no longer whether to choose between an agency or a few independent communications consultants. It is: who is the right team to fix my problem?

Expertise over headcount

There has been a significant rise in the number of independent consultants globally. However, what changed is that many of these consultants are no longer working alone. They are gathering into professional networks.

The client, therefore, has a new option. It is no longer simply a choice between hiring an agency, or hiring a few individual freelancers. It is possible to access a group of independent, senior professionals, who work together as one team – while remaining autonomous. The network becomes the new office. Expertise becomes the new headcount, and seniority becomes the new scale.

It is in this spirit that Consultancy32 was created 10 years ago. Barbara Mahe and I decided to launch an international network of senior, independent communications consultants. We met in London back in 2010 when we were responsible for Press Relations across EMEA for Dow Jones Indexes. I had a PR agency background (FTI Consulting and Blue Rubicon), while Barbara had a corporate communications background (for HSBC and Societe Generale). We did not want to replicate the agency model. We wanted to create something more agile.

Today, we rely on a pool of over 100 multilingual, senior communications and marketing professionals, without offices, layers or hierarchy. We only serve corporations and startups in Finance, Tech, Crypto and Impact – a limited number of sectors to ensure we stay on top of our game. Instead of buying an agency structure, the client buys senior expertise assembled around a specific business and communication challenge.

The senior independent consultant is the product

Consultancy32 can, for example, bring together a senior PR consultant in Dubai, a financial communications expert in London and an art director in Paris for one assignment. The important point is not simply having access to these individuals. It is knowing which experts to bring together, and making sure that they share the right professional standards, mindset, culture, and align effectively to work as one team for the mission.

For the client, the attraction is obvious: access to senior people and a strong international network without having to build or manage that network themselves. It reduces unnecessary layers, accelerates decision-making, and puts experienced specialists closer to the problem from day one.

Instead of having a PR agency per country, another agency for online comms and one for events, the client has access to a one-stop shop of senior professionals who can do it all for them.

The strategic architect of the modern PR team

For consultants, independence does not necessarily mean isolation. A senior professional can remain independent, while benefitting from the collective intelligence of a wider network. AI is accelerating the shift. As technology makes production faster, the value of experience, cultural understanding, and strategic thinking becomes even more important. Clients may need fewer hands to produce content, but they still need the right minds to decide what should be said, where it should be said, and how it will be understood.

The independent consultant is evolving – they no longer represent only the extra pair of hands called in when an agency is busy. The senior independent can become the architect of the solution, working alongside other specialists to create something that is both bigger than one individual, and more flexible than a traditional agency.

The future of communications may no longer belong to the biggest organisation in the room – it may belong to the most relevant combination of expertises.