McKinsey CEO Bob Sternfels recently said the company is rapidly reinventing itself around artificial intelligence. Speaking on Harvard Business Review’s IdeaCast podcast, Sternfels explained that AI is no longer just a tool inside the firm — it is becoming a core part of how McKinsey operates, staffs projects, and delivers value to clients.
According to his latest count, McKinsey now has a total workforce of about 60,000, made up of roughly 40,000 human employees and tens of thousands of AI agents. While earlier figures put the number of agents closer to 20,000, Sternfels clarified during an appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that the real number is now closer to 25,000. A company spokesperson later confirmed that this updated figure is the most accurate.
The shift marks a fundamental change in how the consulting giant thinks about scale. Traditionally, firms like McKinsey grew by hiring more people. Now, growth increasingly comes from pairing human consultants with digital coworkers that can analyze data, run research, draft material, and even manage entire workflows independently.
For McKinsey, the result is a hybrid workforce where AI agents extend the firm’s capacity without expanding headcount in the traditional sense. Consultants can move faster, take on more complex work, and deliver results at a pace that would have been impossible just a few years ago.
Sternfels has described this transformation as a new era for professional services — one in which competitive advantage is no longer defined only by talent and reputation, but also by how effectively a firm integrates artificial intelligence into every layer of its business.
In that context, McKinsey isn’t just experimenting with AI. It’s quietly redefining what a modern consulting firm looks like — and raising the bar for every competitor in the industry.