Nearly 90% of BCG employees are using AI — and it's reshaping how they're evaluated

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🗞️ Driving the news: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) reports that nearly 90% of its 33,000 employees are now using AI, with around half classified as daily “habitual users”
• AI adoption has become central to performance evaluations, with employees expected to demonstrate competence in using AI tools to enhance problem solving, insight generation, and communication
• The firm is also leveraging AI to improve internal processes such as performance review writing, reportedly cutting drafting time by 40% and boosting quality by 20%

🔭 The context: The integration of AI into professional consulting workflows has accelerated across the industry
Firms like Accenture and McKinsey are making similar shifts, with McKinsey reporting over 70% AI tool usage
• BCG’s early adoption strategy included the development of bespoke tools such as Deckster and a GPT-4o-powered assistant named GENE
• Internal training infrastructure — including a generative AI team and 1,200 in-office trainers — has been instrumental in scaling usage across its global workforce.

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: While this development is business-focused, it has broader implications for sustainable workforce transformation
• By automating low-value tasks and reinvesting saved time into higher-impact activities, AI can enable professionals to focus on strategic challenges, including those related to climate, energy, and sustainability
• However, such digital shifts must be paired with equitable upskilling to ensure inclusive access to the green transition

⏭️ What's next: BCG is expected to continue scaling its AI deployment, particularly through the development of custom GPTs tailored to client and internal needs
• The firm now leads OpenAI's customer base in this area, with five times more employees building GPTs than last year
• Future milestones include expanding the advanced user cohort and further embedding AI into strategic decision-making, client servicing, and performance metrics
• Rival firms are likely to mirror these strategies, intensifying competition in AI-enabled consulting

💬 One quote: "If you're not [using AI], you won't do well on the competencies — you'll fall behind your peers on problem solving and insight," — Alicia Pittman, Global People Team Chair, BCG

📈 One stat: 90% of BCG employees use AI, with 50% using it daily — surpassing the firm’s original year-end goal by several months

See on illuminem's Data Hub™ the sustainability performance of BCG and its peers McKinsey, Accenture, and Deloitte