Inside the AI boom that's transforming how consultants work at McKinsey, BCG, and Deloitte
Consulting firms are rapidly adopting AI tools to enhance efficiency and innovation.
Firms say that workers were ambivalent about AI at first.
Now, they say AI has helped workers save time, which they reinvest in more advanced work.
It wasn't long ago that young consultants at McKinsey & Company would pore over reports to ensure they aligned with the firm's writing style.
Now, an AI agent called "Tone of Voice" does that.
At Boston Consulting Group, consultants now use a tool called Deckster to reduce the time they spend polishing PowerPoint slides. At Ernst & Young, instead of contacting payroll, consultants can ask a chatbot to explain their pay slips.
Consulting firms are among the early leaders of the generative AI craze. They're helping other companies train employees, develop new tools, and regulate the technology.
They are also testing generative AI internally, and in just the past two years, they've unveiled a new suite of chatbots, agents, and applications that have quickly and quietly changed how consultants do their work.
At McKinsey, consultants are using an in-house generative AI chatbot called Lilli. It synthesizes the firm's entire body of intellectual property, which spans 100 years and over 100,000 documents and interviews, the firm told BI.
Users enter their requests into Lilli, which aggregates the key points, identifies five to seven relevant internal content pieces, and points users to appropriate experts within the firm. Users can opt to have queries answered by the firm's internal knowledge repository or external sources.
Lilli's usage at the firm has exploded since it was first rolled out in 2023. Over 70% of the firm's 45,000 employees now use the tool. Those who use it turn to it about 17 times a week, McKinsey senior partner Delphine Zurkiya told BI.
When McKinsey first launched Lilli, employees experienced what the firm calls "prompt anxiety," or uncertainty over what to ask the bot. But it found that just one hour of training improved employee engagement. Zurkiya said the tool has also evolved since its launch. It wasn't initially designed to parse PowerPoints, where most of the firm's knowledge exists.
Now, McKinsey consultants told BI they use it for research, summarizing documents, analyzing data, and brainstorming. In a case study published on its website, the firm reported that workers saved 30% of their time using Lilli.
Zurkiya, who describes herself as "one of the heavy users of Lilli," said she often uses it with teams to identify the right approach to solving client problems. "We almost have AI in the room with us because we are often saying, oh, what does Lilli think," she said.
Partners at McKinsey told BI that the firm has been developing AI products for years. In 2015, it acquired a data analytics and design company, QuantumBlack, which now serves as McKinsey's AI consulting arm. It employs 7,000 tech experts across 50 countries.
"About 40% of the work we do is analytics-related, AI-related, and a lot of it is moving to Gen AI," senior partner Ben Ellencweig told BI last year. McKinsey builds generative AI solutions for clients through an "ecosystem" of alliances with 19 AI companies, including Microsoft, Google, Anthropic, and Nvidia, and has completed over 400 genAI projects for clients.
But the popularity of ChatGPT crystallized the value of a conversational tool, Zurkiya said. "There wasn't a major shift in our strategy in the sense that we had already been developing a lot of tools internally. It's just these tools now have become, we'll say faster, in delivering value thanks to that natural user interface," she said.
McKinsey consultants do not have access to ChatGPT.
Lilli is just one of several AI tools changing work within the firm. Zurkiya said that AI technology is being deployed at three levels. On an individual level, a platform lets consultants build their own AI agents — technology that, among other things, can solve problems and execute tasks autonomously. Then, there are more domain-specific tools. Agents in the Life Sciences practice, where Zurkiya works, can help consultants get up to speed on specific companies in the sector. There are also firm-wide tools, like new ones for booking meetings and travel.
The firm also applies the lessons from building Lilli to new client projects, developing similar tools that fit their needs.
Despite the hype around genAI tools, consultants don't seem worried that their jobs could be threatened as a result. Commentators on the anonymous professional networking app Fishbowl who work at McKinsey described its tools as "functional enough" and best for "very low stakes issues."
Over the last two years, BCG has pushed to train its employees in AI.
In 2023, the firm unveiled ChatGPT Enterprise to all its employees under the stipulation that all data would remain under its control. Since then, the firm's 33,000 employees have built over 18,000 custom GPTs — tailored versions of ChatGPT — for internal uses from summarizing documents to generating automatic email responses to answering HR-specific questions.
BCG has also developed eight or nine internal generative AI tools, Scott Wilder, partner and managing director, told BI.
One tool it has heavily invested in is Deckster, a slideshow editor, Wilder said. It's trained on 800 to 900 slide templates and helps consultants quickly create presentations. Wilder said one of Deckster's most popular features is a "review this" button, which helps junior consultants by grading slides based on best practices used by midlevel managers and leaders. About 40% of associates use Deckster weekly, Wilder said.
The tool has become so popular that some of its consultants are fretting about job security. "BCG folks who've tried Deckster: how worried should we be about our jobs? Is it already creating groundbreaking productivity that more junior folks won't be needed as much?" one consultant wrote on Fishbowl last year.
One of the more experimental tools BCG has unveiled is GENE, a conversational chatbot. The bot is built on top of GPT-4o by ElevenLabs and sports an intentionally robotic voice.
"It's a deliberate choice, a subtle reminder that I'm an AI, not a human. Keeps expectations in check," GENE said about its voice during a BCG podcast in December 2023. "Plus it adds a bit of retro charm, doesn't it?"
GENE also explained that its knowledge base is "built from an extensive collection of BCG's best thinking on genAI, shaped by conversations with industry experts, articles, and research studies."
The bot is designed to be a "conversation partner," the firm said. Consultants have employed it for brainstorming, hosting podcasts, live demonstrations, and are even considering using it to interview partners to create content for the firm. Teams can change the bot's "temperature" to control the tone of its responses.
BCG also has an internal platform for building AI agents in beta testing.
Amid gloomy narratives of layoffs and robots coming for jobs, Wilder said the firm's thesis on AI is optimistic. "We will say our goal is to take out the toil and increase the joy," he said. The firm estimates that employees reinvest about 70% of the time they save into "higher value activities," he added.
But those time savings also mean the expectations on consultants are in flux. BCG hasn't changed how it evaluates performance now that it relies so much on genAI tools. However, a spokesperson for the firm told BI it is "thoughtfully considering the role they play as these technologies become more central to how we work."
At Deloitte, generative AI appears to be more tightly regulated. For one, ChatGPT is blocked from the firm's internal system, three consultants told BI.
"I think probably what they really are trying to avoid here is analysts or just forgetful people putting something like client data into a generative AI tool," Andrew Sutton, a senior advisory consultant at the firm, told BI. Sutton, who builds internal AI tools for other consultants at the firm, said they're required to develop them in secure environments to prevent data leaks.
"If we are using a tool that comes from something like OpenAI, we have special communications and contracts with them," he said. "The amount of bureaucracy, all that stuff, that we have to go through is insane."
The firm has its own ChatGPT alternative called Sidekick, which comes with a disclaimer that employees are only allowed to use it for non-client work. Deloitte consultants told BI they use it for summarizing documents, brainstorming, editing emails, and coding.
Deloitte has invested billions into artificial intelligence, however. In March, it unveiled Zora AI, a new fleet of AI agents. The firm says they're trained in specific subjects — like finance or marketing — and designed to think like humans. Last year, it expanded its digital delivery platform, Ascend, with generative AI capabilities.
Publicly, the firm's leadership has also rallied around the technology. At Nvidia's GTC Conference in March, Deloitte principal Jillian Wanner, who leads AI staff development at the firm, acknowledged that the consulting industry is being "disrupted" amid AI transformations. Jim Rowan, head of AI at Deloitte, previously told BI that senior managers should use AI to demonstrate its effectiveness and give employees time to explore the technology.
In a recent statement to BI, Rowan said, "We believe AI is transforming all industries, including our own, ushering in new business models and ways of working, and helping to uncover new sources of business growth and innovation."
KPMG is taking two-pronged approach to AI adoption, according to its head of ecosystems, Todd Lohr. "I'm a big fan of top down and bottoms up," Lohr told BI. "It's really hard to know what hundreds of thousands of people in an organization are doing day to day. But by giving them the technology and letting them use it, they're coming up with even better and more creative ways than any top down methodology."
He said people were a bit confused about how to use genAI when the firm started rolling out the technology two years ago.
"I call it swivel chair processing. It's really hard for people who have been doing tasks for — in some cases — decades to stop what they're doing," Lohr said. Since then, the firm has harvested data on how employees are prompting AI. It's used that information to build new tools, for itself and clients, through retrieval augmented generation — a technique to enhance the specificity and accuracy of large language models — and open data sources, Lohr said.
As consulting firms develop more sophisticating tooling, like platforms for agents, they've realized they need hubs to centralize them. KPMG signed an agreement with Google Cloud this month to purchase licenses for Agentspace — a new platform that integrates AI agents with a company's data — for its US workforce.
Deloitte recently unveiled Agent2Agent, a new platform to improve interoperability between agents. It's the firm's largest collaboration with Google Cloud and ServiceNow.
PwC unveiled a similar platform, called agent OS, last month. It helps centralize clients' agents, and the more than 250 internal ones it has built in the past 18 months. The idea is to convert isolated agents from "ships passing in the night" to "an armada that's working together," Matt Wood, PwC's global and US commercial technology and innovation officer, told BI.
After a post-pandemic dry spell in which many consulting firms struggled with layoffs, lost contracts, and cost-cutting initiatives, generative AI is something of a light at the end of the tunnel — even with the latest scrutiny from Washington.
"My bet is that as more agents become available, organizations will see not just efficiency, but growth," Wood said. "And that growth will allow them to double down on what is working and will result in larger organizations, not smaller organizations."
Read the original article on Business Insider
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News24
9 hours ago
- News24
Emile Ormond: South Africa unready for AI-era job disruption
Emerging economies like South Africa may be partially shielded from the initial waves of AI automation, but when it inevitably arrives, the country could be especially vulnerable due to its large, predominantly young labour force, writes Emile Ormond. As artificial intelligence (AI) grows more sophisticated and pervasive, its potential to disrupt labour markets demands urgent attention. Will AI displace workers? Could it trigger unprecedented unemployment? There has been an influx of news articles, predictions, and expert claims that AI will be highly disruptive to the workforce. For instance, McKinsey estimates 400-800 million people globally may need new jobs by 2030, while a BCG survey found 42% of workers fear their roles may vanish within a decade. For South Africa, with an unemployment rate of 32.9% and 46.5% for youth, these predictions are dire. The country simply cannot afford large-scale job losses without jeopardising fragile social stability, deepening poverty and inequality, increasing crime, and threatening fiscal sustainability. As the government of national unity prioritises 'inclusive growth and job creation,' understanding AI's impact on jobs is not just critical - it's urgent. Impact yet to materialise Despite these warnings, evidence of current AI-driven job losses remains limited. In advanced economies like the US and EU, unemployment is near historic lows. Research has found that, for now, AI's impact on employment is minimal, often boosting productivity instead. In South Africa, high unemployment predates AI, rooted in structural economic challenges. So far, AI has not significantly shrunk job markets globally or locally. Historical, technological leaps, like the Industrial Revolutions, sparked similar fears of mass labour market disruption but ultimately resulted in substantially higher employment and productivity. For instance, more than two-thirds of the world's population lived in extreme poverty before the Industrial Revolution – today, it is less than 10%. This precedent, combined with AI's limited impact to date, may have bred complacency among South Africans, especially policymakers, that AI's impact will be manageable and a net positive. However, this view is shortsighted and lacks nuance. Rapidly increasing advances in areas such as multi-modal and agentic AI are poised to transform workplaces. The vast majority of organisations are planning on introducing or expanding their use of AI. This will see workers requiring new skills, creating new roles, and eliminating others. While the balance of these changes is debated, massive labour market disruption is almost certain. This time is different AI's unique traits, distinct from past technologies, will amplify its impact on jobs. These features include: Cognitive capabilities: Unlike earlier automation that targeted manual tasks, AI can handle complex cognitive work, such as analysis and decision-making. General-purpose technology: Like electricity or the internet, AI's application spans all sectors, driving broad economic impact and broadly fuelling productivity at an unrivalled pace. Self-improvement: AI can help enhance future iterations of itself, unlike previous technologies. For instance, the most advanced nuclear reactor cannot design new reactors, but AI can make better AI. Democratised access: Many AI tools are freely or cheaply available, unlike costly previous industrial technologies that were often limited to large, wealthy organisations. Rapid adoption: Generative AI, for example, surged from obscurity to global prominence in just three years. Now, South African workers use generative AI more than those in the US and UK. These characteristics illustrate why AI will disrupt labour markets at an unprecedented pace and scale, but not all countries and groups are equally vulnerable. SA has breathing room High-income countries, with more white-collar jobs, face earlier AI-driven disruption. For instance, 34% of European Union jobs are exposed to AI automation, compared to 19% in the African Union, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Ageing populations and high labour costs may also accelerate AI adoption in developed markets. Young workers, often in entry-level roles, are particularly at risk. The ILO notes that youth hold jobs most susceptible to automation, potentially blocking their entry into the labour force. This is particularly pressing for Africa, with 350 million young Africans expected to reach working age by 2050. In other words, emerging economies like South Africa may be partially shielded from the initial waves of AI automation, but when it inevitably arrives, the country could be especially vulnerable due to its large, predominantly young labour force. In conjunction with this, AI will likely also drive massive productivity gains and create new, currently unforeseen jobs, but the transition period could be long and hard. Moreover, it could ultimately further entrench South Africa's world-leading inequality. Charting a path forward South Africa has a narrow window, as short as two to three years, to harness AI's productivity gains while mitigating its fallout. Key actions stakeholders can take include: Policy development: Political leaders must move beyond vague rhetoric and adopt nuanced, thoughtful policy positions on AI. The government should finalise a national AI strategy, released for comment in mid-2024, to address labour market impacts. Digital infrastructure: Expand reliable, high-speed internet nationwide, resolving disputes over providers like Starlink to ensure equitable AI access. Reskilling programmes: Invest in large-scale training to equip workers with AI-relevant skills and update school and tertiary education curricula for emerging roles. Responsible AI governance: Regulators and organisations should integrate AI oversight into corporate governance, aligning innovation with national development goals. Moreover, AI needs to be a cross-cutting responsibility in government. Social protections: Plans for displaced workers need to be considered now – there are nearly 19 million grant recipients, compared to a tax base of 7 million. Growth measures and/or new revenue sources will need to be found if the if the South Africa stands at the edge of an epoch-defining labour shift. The question is whether we act proactively or react in a crisis. - Dr Emile Ormond has an interest in policy analysis and risk managment.
Business Insider
13 hours ago
- Business Insider
A company on Russia's doorstep that sent its war robots to Ukraine got a crash course in what soldiers need
A European defense firm's ground robots are being used by Ukrainian soldiers. The experiences there have led to key changes in its products, the Milrem Robotics' CEO told BI. He said Europe's militaries should be learning from Ukraine's fight in case Russia attacks. A military robotics company based in a NATO country bordering Russia says battlefield use of its machines in Ukraine provided valuable insight that led it to rethink its technology and how it could better meet wartime demands. Estonia 's Milrem Robotics makes autonomous ground robots that can be used to gather intelligence, evacuate wounded troops, dispose of explosive devices, and carry weaponry like machine guns. Its THeMIS model, which can carry a payload of up to 2,645.5 pounds and travel at up to 12 miles per hour, is in Ukraine, clearing mines, carrying cargo, and moving out injured soldiers. Kuldar Väärsi, the founder and CEO of Milrem Robotics, told Business Insider that Western weapons makers and militaries need to be learning from what's happening in Ukraine and that the company's experiences there have led to some changes in its products. Väärsi said that developments in Ukraine are "totally different" from peacetime, when weapons are used in training and exercises. The company has been closely watching for ways to make its robots better, both to help Ukraine and to help Europe if needed. One key area has been the simplicity of use. He said the THeMIS was "already quite simple and very easy system to control," but the needs on the battlefield meant it had to be even simpler. He said that in peacetime, equipment might only be used by experienced troops with training. "In Ukraine, in real war, you can't follow that," Väärsi said. "Basically, anybody who needs that equipment will use it, and the more intuitive and simple you make the user interface and you make the usability, the more certain you can be that actually it'll be properly used and efficiently used and it'll be useful for the troops." The electronic warfare battle in Ukraine, in which both sides are jamming and spoofing everything — drones, comms, GPS, and more— has also sparked big changes in uncrewed systems technology. "What we have learned and changed and implemented in our systems is everything related to EW, communication, and cyber," the Milrem CEO said. Evolutions in countermeasures like electronic warfare have led to developments like fiber-optic drones and AI-enabled drones that are resistant to enemy jamming. "What we can see as a trend in Ukraine is that technologies around communication change basically weekly," Väärsi said, referring to the combat systems that rely heavily on stable signals. The feedback from Ukraine means "we have changed quite significantly our design and our products," he said. Väärsi said the company was "very eager" to provide its systems to Ukraine it is based in Estonia, a country once part of the Soviet Union like Ukraine and a current Russian neighbor worried about the possibility of an attack on its sovereignty. Estonia is among the biggest defense spenders in NATO as a proportion of GDP and one of the countries sounding the alarm the loudest about Russia. "It's our mission to support Ukraine as much as we can, to help them win this war. And even if it's as little as sending our vehicles, then we should certainly do it," Väärsi said. He said it's a good business move, too. "If you look at it from the validation perspective, the equipment which doesn't justify itself in Ukraine, why should that be even necessary?" Milrem was founded in 2013, and Väärsi said that before this war, "quite a lot of people were talking about unmanned ground vehicles in defense," but there were also "lots of doubts around it." This war "has demonstrated that unmanned ground vehicles have a really important place on the battlefield," he said. Learning from Ukraine Many Western governments want their countries' battlefield technology in Ukraine so companies can learn how best to be ready for any potential conflict with Russia — something many European countries warn could happen. It's something many Western defense companies want too. Their products can be battle-tested and updated, proving their worth and increasing sales. Luke Pollard, the UK's armed forces minister, said last month:"If you are a drone company and you do not have your kit on the front line in Ukraine, you might as well give up." Väärsi said that Milrem Robotics has a team that regularly visits Ukraine, meets military units, and works directly with the operators who use the company's equipment. It will also soon have a team based in Ukraine to "be closer to Ukrainian forces and to support them even better," he shared. Many companies work closely with soldiers to aid development. A Ukrainian drone operator previously told BI that he texts and FaceTimes with drone makers about their products to encourage a better iterative design and development process. Robots of the future Ground robots are particularly useful on the battlefield because they can be used to move a lot more weight than the flying drones and often more than humans can, fire from positions that are not safe for soldiers to fight from, and travel closer to Russian positions than any human fighter can safely. Väärsi said he sees the robots' role "as a first line of defense or offense," keeping troops safer. That benefits Ukraine, which doesn't have manpower to spare. "You don't move your troops in front, but you move your unmanned systems," he said. Väärsi noted Ukraine, which has a rapidly growing defense industry, has also developed a "very capable" ground robots industry. It's a technology the West and others as well are looking at more and more. Germany's ARX Robotics opened Europe's largest production facility for ground military robots this year, and companies across the continent are making new models. Milrem is playing a leading role, heading a consortium developing unmanned ground systems that received $56 million in funding from the European Defense Fund. Its robots are capable platforms that Russian researchers actually put a bounty on, encouraging soldiers to try to steal one to advance Russia's work in this space. The company's other products include larger combat vehicles, like HAVOC, which has a payload capacity of 5 tons. It also has an AI-enabled intelligent functions kit, which lets the vehicles move autonomously. It says that its products are part of robotics programs or in service in 19 countries, including the US, UK, and Germany. Ground robots are one of many things Ukraine's international partners are watching closely as they look into what sort of tactics, weaponry, and so on they should adopt. Milrem collaborates with companies that are in Ukraine, and Väärsi encouraged other foreign defense companies to do the same. "What I consider very important is that in Europe we need to learn and very seriously learn what is ongoing in Ukraine: what works, what doesn't work, what mindsets need to be shifted to be better equipped if — hopefully that never happens — but if Russia decides to expand their activities in the warfare."
Business Insider
17 hours ago
- Business Insider
TruGolf Announces Reverse Stock Split
Salt Lake City, Utah, June 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TruGolf Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRUG), a leading provider of golf simulator software and hardware, today announced that it filed an amendment to its amended and restated certificate of incorporation with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware to effect a 1-for-50 reverse stock split of its Class A common stock. The reverse stock split will take effect at 12:01 am (Eastern Time) on June 23, 2025, and the Company's Class A common stock will open for trading on The Nasdaq Capital Market on June 23, 2025 on a post-split basis, under the existing ticker symbol 'TRUG' but with a new CUSIP number 243733409. As a result of the reverse stock split, every fifty shares of the Company's Class A common stock issued and outstanding prior to the opening of trading on June 23, 2025 will be consolidated into one issued and outstanding share. Proportionate adjustments will be made to the exercise prices and the number of shares underlying the Company's outstanding equity awards, as applicable, as well as to the number of shares issuable under the Company's equity incentive plans. The Class A common stock issued pursuant to the reverse stock split will remain fully paid and non-assessable. The reverse stock split will not affect the number of authorized shares of Class A common stock or the par value of the Class A common stock. No fractional shares will be issued if, as a result of the reverse stock split, a stockholder would become entitled to a fractional share because the number of shares of Class A common stock they hold before the reverse stock split is not evenly divisible by the split ratio. Instead, the stockholder will be entitled to receive a cash payment in lieu of a fractional share. As a result of the reverse stock split, the number of shares of Class A common stock outstanding will be reduced from approximately 40.5 million shares to approximately 0.8 million shares, and the number of authorized shares of Class A common stock will remain at 650 million shares. About TruGolf, Inc. Since 1983, TruGolf has been passionate about driving the golf industry with innovative indoor golf solutions. TruGolf builds products that capture the spirit of golf. TruGolf's mission is to help grow the game by attempting to make it more Available, Approachable, and Affordable through technology - because TruGolf believes Golf is for Everyone. TruGolf's team has built award-winning video games ("Links"), innovative hardware solutions, and an all-new e-sports platform to connect golfers around the world with E6 CONNECT. Since TruGolf's beginning, TruGolf has continued to attempt to define and redefine what is possible with golf technology. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains certain statements that constitute 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements that are not of historical fact constitute 'forward-looking statements' and accordingly, involve estimates, assumptions, forecasts, judgements and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the timing of the reverse stock split. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the date made, expectations may prove to have been materially different from the results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company has attempted to identify forward-looking statements by terminology including ''believes,'' ''estimates,'' ''anticipates,'' ''expects,'' ''plans,'' ''projects,'' ''intends,'' ''potential,'' ''may,'' ''could,'' ''might,'' ''will,'' ''should,'' ''approximately'' or other words that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors. Any forward-looking statements contained in this release speak only as of its date. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release to reflect events or circumstances occurring after its date or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. More detailed information about the risks and uncertainties affecting the Company is contained under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K filed with the SEC, which are available on the SEC's website,
