Lilli, a new generative AI tool developed in-house by global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, is set to become available this fall. The interactive platform will deliver insights to employees based on a knowledge base of over 10,000 documents and archival data.
Along with the internal archival search function, Lilli – named after McKinsey’s first ever female employee Lillian Dombrowski, hired in 1945 – will also feature a ChatGPT-like chatbot function that aggregates external sources and allows users to engage in dialogue with the platform.
“Lilli aggregates our knowledge and capabilities in one place for the first time and will allow us to spend more time with clients activating those insights and recommendations and maximizing the value we can create,” said Erik Roth, a senior partner with McKinsey.
“An engagement team will be able to spend more time on problem solving, coaching, building capabilities, and helping clients achieve the performance they aspire to achieve,” he continued.
McKinsey & Company – one of the globe’s most prestigious consulting firms – has confirmed around 7,000 employees have access to the platform, so far asking around 50,000 questions. The interface is reportedly similar to other generative AI tools like ChatGPT, with user prompts generating a chronological chat log, with sources listed postscript.
“With Lilli, we can use technology to access and leverage our entire body of knowledge and assets to drive new levels of productivity. This is the first of many use cases that will help us reshape our firm,” said Jacky Wright, McKinsey senior partner and chief technology and platform officer.
With excitement around AI growing quickly in the past few years, McKinsey had already joined the party in January with the acquisition of Iguazo, an Israeli automation and machine learning firm that was incorporated into McKinsey’s AI subsidiary QuantumBlack. Earlier this year, the consulting giant signed off on a strategic partnership with Cohere, a Canadian developer of enterprise AI platforms and large language models.
In February this year, McKinsey launched its QuantumBlack subsidiary in the Middle East market.
AI’s love affair with consultants
The consulting world, as with many other sectors, has been abuzz with AI fever for the past several years. In April of this year, PwC invested $1 billion in a partnership with Microsoft and ChatGPT creators OpenAI, with Accenture soon after in June upping the stakes with an announcement to invest a whopping $3 billion in developing their own homegrown AI practice.
IBM Consulting also very recently announced an expanded collaboration with Microsoft to offer a new set of AI services.
Sourced from Consultancy-me