Artificial intelligence (A.I.) is replacing jobs, even in the consulting sector. The uptake of generative A.I. has now extended to consultancy giants like McKinsey which has half of its 30,000 employees using A.I. tools like ChatGPT in their work. ChatGPT can summarise entire literature in mere minutes, previously a task which could take up an entire weekend for an employee to complete. Alex Singla, McKinsey’s Senior Partner and global leader of QuantumBlack, the firm’s A.I consulting branch, is sceptical that the replacement of understanding raw data through summarisations may limit a consultant’s ability to synthesise complex data effectively, a skill he views as crucial for consultants to learn over time. However, Singla believes that A.I. cannot replace the people component that slows things down; the strategic advising, problem-solving, creativity, and change management skills that management consulting requires are pivotal to the firm’s work.
McKinsey’s Chief People Officer, Katy George, believes the rise of generative A.I. will also change the recruitment process. Entry-level consultants will require a digital understanding and comfort with working with data sets and data scientists. The consulting company has yet to make major changes to its hiring programs but will likely add A.I.-specific requirements in the future. In the meantime, Singla views management consulting as still having a significant role to play in businesses, indicating that management consultancy’s future is in being a complement to A.I., rather than its replacement.
