McKinsey Introduces AI Interview Stage and Reveals 20,000-Agent Workforce

Summary

McKinsey & Company announced on January 14, 2026 that it has introduced an AI collaboration stage to its final-round graduate recruitment process. Candidates are now required to use McKinsey's internal AI tool "Lilli" as a thinking partner during case study interviews. The evaluation measures whether candidates can effectively prompt the AI, critically assess its output, and apply judgment to produce structured responses — testing AI fluency as a core consulting competency rather than a suppleme