McKinsey says it has 25,000 AI agents. Its rivals say that's not a metric of success.

"McKinsey CEO Bob Sternfels said last month that the firm added 25,000 AI agents to its staff in less than two years. His rivals were unimpressed. "I don't think the number of agents translates directly to value," EY's global engineering chief, Steve Newman, told Business Insider. "In fact, some of the best value that we have is returned by just a handful of agents that are doing the heavy lifting." Newman said EY is more focused on measuring efficiency."

""I think that's probably the wrong measure," he said. The value of AI deployment is better measured by the quality - not the quantity - of agents, he said. Sternfels first talked about his firm's onboarding of tens of thousands of agents in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. He mentioned it again on an episode of Harvard Business Review's IdeaCast. A McKinsey spokesperson later confirmed to Business Insider that the number was accurate."

"Sternfels said the firm plans to add more, too. In the next year and a half, every one of its 40,000 human employees will be "enabled by at least one or more agents," he said."

McKinsey added 25,000 AI agents in under two years and plans to enable each of its 40,000 employees with one or more agents within about 18 months. Rival firms caution that the number of agents does not equal value, arguing that a small number of high-quality agents can deliver significant impact. EY measures agent performance with KPIs for productivity, quality, and cost and tracks results monthly and quarterly. PwC emphasizes quality over quantity when evaluating AI deployments. The consulting industry is rapidly adopting AI internally and advising clients on AI adoption strategies.

Read at Business Insider