McKinsey & Company which is one of the world’s most well-known consulting firms has just introduced a new teammate.
But this teammate doesn’t wear a suit or join Zoom calls. Her name is Lilli and she might be smarter than all. She’s a generative AI tool that has been designed to help McKinsey consultants work faster, smarter, and with fewer late nights.
So, Who (or What) Is Lilli?
Lilli is an in-house AI assistant that has been created by McKinsey to make knowledge-sharing across the people in the firm quicker and easier.
They don’t have to dig through dozens of documents or chase internal experts, the consultants can now just ask Lilli a question, for example, “What’s our point of view on digital transformation in retail?” and in no time they can get a clear, sourced answer.
So it’s like ChatGPT trained on McKinsey’s brain.
Why Did McKinsey Build Lilli?
In consulting, time is the essence and is literally everything, and McKinsey has decades of research, reports, and expert insights all of it stored in its systems.
The biggest challenge? Finding the right info at the right time isn’t always easy. Lilli easily solves that in seconds.
She taps into:
- Internal case studies
- Research papers
- Proprietary frameworks
- Expert-written insights
And then she turns all of that into simple, but verified answers, so that the consultants can put their efforts and mind into solving problems and less on searching for slide decks.
What Can Lilli Actually Do?
Lilli isn’t just answering trivia questions. Here’s what she helps with:
- Research: Consultants can use her to explore industry trends or even review past case studies.
- Drafting: She can be of great help in outlining presentations, documents, or even client memos.
- Training: New hires can get up to speed faster with Lilli as their AI tutor.
- Consistency: Everyone across the firm accesses the same verified knowledge, there’s no room for inconsistency or difference.
Why This Matters in the Bigger Picture
McKinsey isn’t just jumping on the AI race. It’s trying to redefine and change how knowledge transfer happens inside complex organizations.
While many companies are experimenting with external tools such as ChatGPT or Claude, McKinsey has built Lilli specifically for their people, their data, and their way of working, the more personal the better.
And having over 40,000 employees across 130+ offices, even saving a few minutes per person per day adds up to a massive productivity boost and at the same time is very efficient.
Final Thought
Lilli might not replace consultants anytime soon, but she’s already changing how they work.
She’s fast, reliable, and knows McKinsey better than most first-year analysts ever could.
In a world where information overload slows everything down, Lilli is proof that the smartest AI isn’t just about answering questions, it’s about knowing which answers matter most.
Lilli is just one example of how top consulting firms are embracing AI to rethink the way they work. To see how the rest of the Big Four are adapting, check out our article on How AI Agents Are Transforming the Big Four Consulting Firms.
