McKinsey & Company‘s widely adopted AI chatbot “Lilli” is handling work traditionally done by junior consultants, potentially signaling future workforce changes at the global consulting firm.
The AI tool, which synthesizes McKinsey’s intellectual property spanning 100 years and over 100,000 documents and interviews, is now used by approximately 70% of the firm’s 45,000 employees, according to information shared by the company with Business Insider.
Frequent users access Lilli about 17 times per week, with the tool performing tasks including research, document summarization, data analysis, and content drafting.
A McKinsey case study reported that workers using Lilli saved approximately 30% of their time — a productivity increase that could eventually reduce staffing needs, though the company has not yet announced any plans to cut its workforce.
McKinsey’s competitors are pursuing similar AI strategies. Boston Consulting Group has developed eight or nine internal generative AI tools, including Deckster, a presentation creation system used by about 40% of associates weekly.
“We will say our goal is to take out the toil and increase the joy,” Scott Wilder, partner and managing director at BCG, told Business Insider. The firm estimates that employees reinvest about 70% of the time they save into “higher value activities,” he added.
Deloitte has also invested heavily in AI, recently unveiling Zora AI, a fleet of specialized AI agents trained in specific subjects like finance or marketing, and a platform called Agent2Agent to improve interoperability between AI systems.
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