Every BA has heard the whisper: "AI is coming for your job." But it's not AI that's threatening business analysts. It's the industry's obsession with turning strategic thinkers into glorified note-takers. AI might be the thing that finally saves the BA role from itself.

Your customer says they need "better reporting." But what they really need might be data cleanup, process redesign, or completely different metrics. The best consultants don't just build what customers ask for—they solve the problems customers can't articulate. Here's how AI amplifies that strategic thinking.

The 500-page requirements document is dead. So is its scrappy cousin, the 47-tab Excel spreadsheet. They both died of the same cause: nobody can maintain them, nobody can search them, and they're usually wrong by the time anyone tries to use them. But what killed them wasn't neglect—it was the realization that comprehensive requirements were always possible, just not the way we were doing them.

Your implementation is technically flawless. The data was migrated perfectly. Every requirement was built to spec. Users got comprehensive training. So why is adoption terrible and your client calling for a post-mortem? Welcome to the change management catastrophe—where perfect technology meets human reality.

The biggest threat to your implementation isn't scope creep or budget overruns—it's the game of telephone happening between your BAs and your developers.

Your top business analysts aren't leaving because the work is hard. They're leaving because most of their time is spent on work that isn't actually analysis. Here's what's really driving BA burnout—and why AI might save your best talent.