Agents in the Wild

McKinsey's Lilli platform is used regularly by over 70% of the firm's staff

McKinsey built Lilli, an internal generative AI platform that searches the firm's knowledge and helps with research, summaries, and drafting. It reports that a large majority of its people use it regularly.

Organization
McKinsey & Company
Industry
Consulting
When
2025
Evidence
Company reported
Agents and tools
Lilli (internal)

Reported outcome

More than 70% of the firm uses Lilli regularly, with millions of prompts answered (company figures).

  • 70%+ of staff
    Regular users

Caveats

Stated by the company that uses the agent (blog, earnings call, interview). Not independently audited.

  • McKinsey also sells AI consulting, so its own story is also marketing.
  • 'Regularly' is not defined, and figures differ between McKinsey pages and dates.
  • Usage is not the same as time saved or better work.

What the agent does

Consultants ask Lilli questions. It searches McKinsey's internal knowledge, such as past research and expert material, and returns answers with sources. People use it for research, summaries, data analysis, and brainstorming.

Why adoption is the story

Many companies build an internal AI tool that few people use. McKinsey's numbers are about regular use across a whole firm, which is the hard part. Its own write-ups describe the platform as a change-management effort, not just a software launch.

What to copy

  • Train people with real examples from their own work.
  • Show sources with every answer, so experts trust it.
  • Track regular use, not sign-ups.

Starter prompt

Written by us.

Question: {question}
Search results from our internal knowledge base: {results}

Answer in under 200 words. Cite each claim as [doc title, date].
If the documents disagree, show both views.
End with: "Experts to ask:" and list authors of the most relevant documents.

Sources

  1. Rewiring the way McKinsey works with Lilli, our generative AI platform — McKinsey, 2025
  2. Meet Lilli, our generative AI tool — McKinsey, Aug 2023

Added Oct 16, 2026. Spotted an error? Send a correction.

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