McKinsey Has 40,000 Employees. It Plans an AI Agent for Each One.
The consulting industry is undergoing its biggest transformation in decades — and it has nothing to do with billable hours.
McKinsey & Company has launched tens of thousands of internal AI agents in recent years. That number is about to grow significantly. CEO Bob Sternfels recently announced the firm plans to have an AI agent for every one of its 40,000 employees.
The announcement marks a milestone in enterprise AI adoption. But heres the twist: McKinsey is now less focused on how many agents it has deployed, and more focused on whether theyre actually creating value.
The Numbers Game
For the past year, consulting firms raced to deploy AI agents. The race was measured in count — how many agents, how many users, how many tasks automated.
That phase is ending.
"Were now in the age of confusion," Mina Alaghband, former McKinsey partner and now chief customer officer at AI platform Writer, told Business Insider. "A year ago, most companies were focused on adoption, tracking metrics such as how often a tool was used. Now, the emphasis should be on measuring the value thats created."
PwCs chief AI officer, Dan Priest, put it more directly: the firm now tracks how many human users each agent has, not just how many agents exist.
What Theyre Measuring
The Big Four are shifting from deployment metrics to outcome metrics:
Time saved: BCG tracks how much time AI saves employees — and what they do with it. The results are striking: humans now spend 15% less time on low-value activities like building slideshows.
What happens next: BCG found that 70% of saved time gets reinvested into higher-value work like deeper analysis. But heres the surprise: employees keep about 30% of their saved time. More sleep. More yoga. More life.
Quality over quantity: EY prioritizes "specialized AI agents" that have proven their worth. Every agent is tracked on productivity, quality, and cost efficiency — monthly.
The Bigger Picture
John Keynes predicted in 1930 that rising productivity would eventually change the work-leisure balance. "The standard of life in progressive countries one hundred years hence will be between four and eight times as high as it is," he wrote.
Its almost 2030. In consulting firms around the world, that prediction is quietly coming true — one AI agent at a time.
"The consulting industry is building armies of AI agents. Now its trying to figure out what theyre actually worth."