McKinsey on AI: Hire Us Now!
The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) just published a discussion paper called ‘Artificial Intelligence: the next digital frontier?’ Like most MGI output, it’s full of interesting data, in-depth background, some strong analysis, great graphics, and a case study or two, but the executive summary is disappointing. It just sounds a bit… desperate.
MGI knows that most of their readers (the ones that matter – executives with budget) will only read the summary, so they know it’s important, and they need to make their key point clearly.
And the key point is – Hire Us Now!
I’ve pulled seven key quotes out of the exec summary here, and provided a handy translation:
McKinsey: “Artificial intelligence is poised to unleash the next wave of digital disruption, and companies should prepare for it now”
> Translation: Hire us! Do it now!
McKinsey: “AI adoption outside of the tech sector is at an early, often experimental stage. Few firms have deployed it at scale. In our survey of 3,000 AI-aware C-level executives, across 10 countries and 14 sectors, only 20 percent said they currently use any AI-related technology at scale or in a core part of their businesses”
> Translation: Few are doing it – and this is from execs that are already ‘AI aware’, but… Don’t be a Laggard!
McKinsey: “Adoption patterns illustrate a growing gap between digitized early AI adopters and others”
> Translation: We’ve somehow divined this from those relatively few examples!
McKinsey: “Early evidence suggests that AI can deliver real value to serious adopters and can be a powerful force for disruption”
> Translation: That scary Disruption word again! Hire Us Now! But only if you’re serious!
McKinsey: “In our survey, early AI adopters that combine strong digital capability with proactive strategies have higher profit margins and expect the performance gap with other firms to widen in the future”
> Translation: Strong digital capability’, ‘Proactive strategies’, ‘Widening performance gap’… Er, OK…
McKinsey: “Early adopters are already creating competitive advantages, and the gap with the laggards looks set to grow”
> Translation: Leave those losers behind! Hire Us Now!
McKinsey: “A successful program requires firms to address many elements of a digital and analytics transformation: identify the business case, set up the right data ecosystem, build or buy appropriate AI tools, and adapt workflow processes, capabilities, and culture. In particular, our survey shows that leadership from the top, management and technical capabilities, and seamless data access are key enablers”
> Translation: It’s Really Hard To Do! And Expensive! Hire Us Now! Did we already mention that?
Don’t get me wrong, I really like a lot of what McKinsey does / has done, and it’s full of very smart people. But I’m assuming someone from marketing wrote the summary? It doesn’t do the excellent report content any justice, and surely a little more subtlety wouldn’t go astray.
If you’re inspired to read the paper (it’s 70 pages long mind you) you can get it here: