Turning AI Into Infrastructure: McKinsey’s Playbook
How McKinsey Embedded AI at the Core of Their Operations to Drive Real Business Value
AI is often seen as a buzzword or a quick fix to improve certain business processes.
However, McKinsey approached AI differently.
For those looking to understand how to make AI work for their business, McKinsey’s model offers valuable insights on how AI can transform operations and deliver tangible, lasting value.
AI as Core Infrastructure
In 2023, McKinsey launched Lilli, their generative AI platform, firm-wide. Today, 72% of their employees use it regularly, generating over 500,000 prompts each month.
The result? An estimated 50,000 consultant hours were saved over the same period.
This shift has allowed consultants to spend less time searching for information and more time using that information to develop insights and make decisions.
Speed isn’t the only benefit. Deliverables that used to take days now take hours. Proposal win rates are up.
Junior consultants have moved from performing basic research tasks to providing more valuable insights. Senior consultants are now focused on strategy, mentorship, and planning.
This is how AI as core infrastructure can optimize efficiency and deliver faster, higher-quality results.
AI as a Long-Term Investment
McKinsey’s success with AI wasn’t a quick win. They didn’t just install AI and hope it would solve specific issues. Instead, this was a major shift in how the firm operates.
McKinsey took the time to integrate AI into their workflow, rebuilt their knowledge processes, and used AI to complement and not replace human expertise. They completely reworked how their consultants deliver value to clients.
It’s a reminder that AI requires careful planning and integration to achieve long-term, sustainable benefits.
How to Build AI Into Your Business
You don’t need to follow McKinsey’s exact blueprint, but there are clear takeaways from their success.
Here’s how to approach AI integration in your own organization:
Make AI Part of Daily Operations
AI should be more than an isolated tool. It needs to be part of your daily operations, integrated into the workflow of your teams.
Leverage Proprietary Data
Using public data may seem convenient, but it’s your proprietary data like customer insights, operational metrics, that will give you an edge. Invest in leveraging internal data to create business value.
Augment Your Team’s Skills
AI should enhance your team’s abilities, not replace them. By automating repetitive tasks, AI frees up your team to focus on higher-level work that drives strategic value.
Plan for Flexibility and Scalability
AI adoption is an ongoing process. It requires continuous iteration, and as your business grows, your AI systems should be flexible enough to scale with it.
AI as the New Standard
Companies that succeed in the AI-driven future will be the ones that integrate AI into the very core of their operations, as McKinsey has done.
Don’t wait for AI to be perfect or for a moment of clarity about what’s next. Start making AI part of your business today, step by step.
The companies that move quickly to integrate AI will lead in the future.