McKinsey boss says there are three skills AI models can’t do that young professionals should focus on

Artificial intelligence is transforming McKinsey’s workforce, but the company’s top executive said there are still basic human skills that AI models cannot master.

Bob Sternfels, global managing partner at McKinsey, spoke at an appearance at McKinsey about how AI is changing work in companies Consumer electronics trade fair on Tuesday in Las Vegas.

Sternfels said that last year alone, McKinsey saved 1.5 million hours in search and synthesis by adopting AI, work that he said AI models are great for. He also said that AI agents, of which there are 25,000 at McKinsey, are excellent at creating charts and that they have created 2.5 million of them in the last six months.

With agents taking on some of that work, he said consultants are now “moving up” and tackling “more complicated problems.”

Given these changes, Sternfels said McKinsey looked from the perspective of large employers to what skills new graduates need in an AI-driven world. He identified three: the ability to…