Bob Sternfels
The traditional workforce model is being rewritten at McKinsey, where AI bots are rapidly equalising with human staff numbers. LinkedIn / Bob Sternfels

McKinsey's top executive, Bob Sternfels, has issued a stark reminder regarding the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence. He suggests that the next wave of automation, driven by AI agents, may soon perform tasks once reserved for human staff. As these digital tools become more capable, the global workforce faces a significant shift in how roles are defined and maintained.

McKinsey is currently undergoing a shift in its staff structure, fuelled by artificial intelligence. The firm's chief executive shared that the global consultancy currently utilises 25,000 AI bots alongside 40,000 people—and anticipates these figures will equalise before the close of the year.

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A Rapidly Balancing Workforce

During a recent appearance on the Harvard Business Review's IdeaCast, Bob Sternfels, who leads the firm, explained that the business is undergoing a swift transformation to place artificial intelligence at its core.

According to his most recent count, the firm's total staff of 60,000 consists of 40,000 people and 20,000 digital assistants. However, while attending the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week, he clarified that McKinsey actually employs nearer to 25,000 AI agents. A company representative later confirmed to Business Insider that this higher number reflects the current reality.

Speaking on the podcast, Sternfels noted that the company's reliance on these tools had grown from just a few thousand to eighteen months ago. Looking ahead to the next year and a half, his ambition is for the entire workforce to be 'enabled by at least one or more agents.'

Decoupling Growth from Headcount

While the number of advisors working on the frontline with customers has risen by a quarter, internal support roles have declined by an equal amount. Interestingly, despite this reduction in headcount, the productivity of these back-office functions has actually climbed by 10 percent.

Sternfels explained that the firm has moved away from the long-standing belief that expansion is only possible by increasing the total number of staff. The business is now operating under a different framework, allowing it to bolster the number of frontline consultants while cutting back on internal support positions without stalling progress.

Efficiency at the firm has reached new heights, with artificial intelligence automating the search and synthesis tasks usually assigned to junior staff, saving 1.5 million hours in just one year. Furthermore, the company's digital agents have produced 2.5 million charts over the last six months, enabling consultants to focus on more complex challenges.

According to Sternfels, this transition allows the team to be 'moving up the stack' rather than dedicating their day to repetitive duties that technology now manages with ease.

Redefining Career Success

Sternfels pointed out three specific talents that remain beyond the reach of technology: establishing high-level goals, exercising sound judgment, and original creative thought. He noted that while artificial intelligence operates by making logical predictions, it cannot match a person's ability to engage in the kind of 'orthogonal thinking' that disrupts established norms.

This evolution is similarly altering how the firm recruits new talent. Rather than prioritising a candidate's educational background, Sternfels proposed that businesses should value proven capabilities, such as assessing a programmer's contributions on GitHub instead of relying on their degree.

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