McKinsey Embraces AI
McKinsey is now using its own generative AI tool called Lilli. The tool is named after Lillian Dombrowski, the first woman McKinsey hired for a professional services role in 1945.
The Lilli tool is customized but has features familiar to generative AI tools like a chat-like text box. Unlike most generative AI tools, Lilli provides a separate “Sources” section below every single response, along with links and even page numbers from which the model drew its response.
Also unique to Lilli is the ability to upload client data. McKinsey senior partner Erik Roth, who led the Lillli’s development is quoted in the article as saying: “Lilli has the capacity to upload client data in a very safe and secure way… we can think about use cases in the future where we’ll combine our data with our clients data, or just use our clients’ data on the same platform for greater synthesis and exploration…anything that we load into Lilli, goes through an extensive compliance risk assessment, including our own data.”
The goal of the tool is for McKinsey consultants to use it with almost every step of their work, including gathering research, drafting proposals, and crafting work product.
Lilli is an example of how generative AI is finding its way into professional services firms. Reports are that consultants, accountants, and lawyers are all finding ways to incorporate generative AI into their businesses.
The future of generative AI applications is uncertain but it is clear that professionals using AI will have an advantage over those that don’t.
McKinsey consultants would use Lilli through nearly every step of their work with a client, from gathering initial research on the client’s sector and competitors or comparable firms, to drafting plans for how the client could implement specific projects.
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VentureBeat’s demo of Lilli showed off such versatility: Lilli was able to provide a list of internal McKinsey experts qualified to speak about a large e-commerce retailer, as well as an outlook for clean energy in the U.S. over the next decade, and a plan for building a new energy plant over the course of 10 weeks.
