TLDR: Pure advisory is dead. Outcomes are essential.
AI is fundamental, but not everything.
McKinsey are trying to pivot a 100-year old firm, because they’ve realised clients are tired of paying for theory and slides.
I see the same client frustrations with all the big consulting firms.
Here are the 5 key insights I took from the interview and what your business can learn from them…
- The Hybrid Workforce: McKinsey now has 60,000 “employees”, but 20,000 of them are AI agents. I suspect the majority are custom LLM chatbots, but it’s still a strong directional signal. If you haven’t already, start building today!
- Advisory to Outcomes: They are moving from a fee-for-service model (selling time/slides) to underwriting outcomes. If the client doesn’t win, they don’t win. I suspect this is a shift they will struggle with. Pay for outcomes.
- Complexity is the Product: Clients can use AI for the basics. They now pay premiums only for the really complicated, interconnected problems that AI can’t solve alone. Use this principle in how you approach AI.
- The Human Moat (Crucial): Sternfels admits AI cannot replace three things: Aspiration (setting the bar), Judgment (making the call), and Novel Thinking (discontinuous leaps). Let tech do the processing, and your team make the calls.
- Resilience over Perfection: They found that candidates with “perfect marks” were less likely to succeed than those who faced setbacks and recovered. Resilience is the new super-power. Hire people on this basis.
For years, the pure-play consulting industry has been getting away with handing over slide decks and saying “Good luck”.
This interview confirms something I’ve always believed, and a principle we follow at 7DOTS.
Value isn’t just the idea itself. It’s in a combination of the idea AND the execution and outcome of that idea.
Often the challenge isn’t a lack of vision, it’s the messy bit between that, and creating efficient and effective outcomes.
Cutting through this requires a partner who can think big, but also role up their sleeves, get stuck in, and help your teams (and technology) to deliver real results.
Which is exactly why we are a hybrid consultancy AND agency at 7DOTS. We help you work out the complex problems and solutions, AND then work alongside your teams and the technology to deliver the solution.
Holding ourselves accountable as we go.
Image credit: Piotr Leśniak
Link to original article: https://hbr.org/2026/01/we-want-to-make-ourselves-better
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