AI is conscious, then almost all its information processing is unconscious. This would mean that if a civilization of smaller AIs improves its communication abilities to the point that a single conscious hive mind emerges, their much faster individual consciousnesses are suddenly extinguished. If the IIT prediction is wrong, on the other hand, the hive mind can coexist with the panoply of smaller conscious minds. Indeed, one could even imagine a nested hierarchy of consciousnesses at all levels from microscopic to cosmic.
