- McKinsey executives say it's important for young consultants to learn to ask the right questions of AI.
- A McKinsey executive tasked an intern with learning how to be a better “responsive engineer.”
- McKinsey said last year that AI was making its consultants more efficient, saving them 30% of their time.
To stand out in today's summer internships, it's important to learn how to converse with AI.
At least, that's the advice McKinsey's chief client officer, Liz Hilton Siegel, gave to the firm's eager interns.
“My advice to her was to be a good responsive engineer.” Hilton Siegel told The Wall Street Journal:
McKinsey is one of a few top consulting firms capitalizing on the generative AI boom, owing much of the firm's record $16 billion in revenue last year to new work related to the technology.
The firm also launched its own in-house generative AI tools, including “Lilli,” named after Lillian Dombrowski, the first woman hired in McKinsey's professional services division.
Lili's goal is to aggregate a company's knowledge and capabilities so employees can spend more time engaging with customers, Eric Roth, a senior partner at McKinsey who oversaw Lili's development, said in a press release announcing the tool last year.
Tools like Lily can reduce drudgery once employees learn the prompts (the process of pulling information from the tool). I focus Utilize your skills for higher value tasks.
At the company's press conference last month, Ross said 72% of consultants now use Lilli.
“We've answered over 3 million prompts and are adding about 120,000 more every week,” he said. “On average, we save our consultants up to 30% of their time, and instead of spending time on analysis, they can reallocate that time to spend with their clients.”
