Read the excerpt below from Vault’s recent article entitled, “McKinsey’s New AI-Powered Interview: The Future of Consulting Recruiting?“
Consulting firms are undergoing a structural shift driven by AI adoption and client expectations. McKinsey, like its peers, is spending more of its time helping clients implement AI systems, redesign workflows, and deliver outcomes. The firm shrank its workforce by more than 10% between 2023 and mid-2024 and has encouraged underperforming consultants to exit. Additional job cuts, particularly in non-client-facing roles, are reportedly planned as AI-driven efficiencies increase.
At the same time, McKinsey is expanding its internal use of AI dramatically. CEO Bob Sternfels recently said the firm now has roughly 20,000 AI agents supporting about 40,000 human employees, with a goal of reaching one agent per person in the near future. Thus, testing AI collaboration during an interview seems rather logical.
What This Means for Job Seekers: The classic consulting “pyramid” of firms hiring armies of junior analysts is changing. AI can already do much of the analysis that once justified large junior classes. What firms now need are people who can check AI-output and communicate insights to clients who are themselves becoming more sophisticated (largely through the use of AI).
This also helps explain another notable shift McKinsey has acknowledged: a renewed openness to candidates with liberal arts backgrounds. Sternfels has said such candidates were sometimes deprioritized in the past, but their ability to make “discontinuous leaps” in thinking may complement AI systems that excel at pattern recognition but struggle with creative judgment.
How Candidates Can Prepare: The takeaway here shouldn’t be that you need to memorize AI prompts or learn how to outsource your own thinking to AI. Competitive job seekers will need to demonstrate comfort working alongside AI tools without deferring to them blindly, along with the ability to critique and refine AI-generated insights.
Candidates should also demonstrate genuine intellectual curiosity and the ability to learn from failures. Indeed, the consultants of the future won’t be defined by who can generate answers faster, but by who can ask better questions, apply good judgment, and deliver insight in an increasingly AI-driven world. Writeen by Rob Porter is an editor at Vault.
How can students prepare?
Prepare to Apply: Resources
Highlight these in-demand qualities/skills in your resume: communication, working with numbers, curious, creative thinking, interpersonal, organizational, ability to multitask, research, attention to detail, speaking, and problem solving.
Case interview refers to a form of job interview in which the applicant is faced with a business situations that need to be explored and figured out in a time-sensitive environment. Employers use case interviews to study candidate’s analytical skills.
- Case Library, Management Consulted’s repository of over 600 cases, organized by firm, difficulty, and subject matter.
- LinkedIn Learning: Video lessons, drills, and case walkthroughs. Complete cases on paper while watching an expert walkthrough as a first attempt at a case interview
- McKinsey’s New AI-Powered Interview: The Future of Consulting Recruiting?
Gain Experience
Test your interests by completing an internship. The summer 2027 applications will open in June or July.
Review more resources via the Feller Center’s website: https://fellercenter.umd.edu/careers-consulting
Event
