By Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant. Updated July 2026. The future of consulting is a shift in how the industry operates, not whether it exists. Under AI and client pressure, firms move to smaller and faster teams, value-based rather than hourly pricing, fewer entry-level hires, and a growing line of AI-strategy work. The core…
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By Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant. Updated September 2026. If you are weighing a consulting career, you have probably typed “will AI replace consultants” into Google at midnight and found two useless extremes: consulting is dead, or nothing will change. Neither helps you decide whether to bet the next few years of your life…
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Updated July 2026 · By Florian Smeritschnig, Former McKinsey Senior Consultant If you reach McKinsey’s final round this year, you may meet an unfamiliar third party at the table. Next to the interviewer and the case sits, at least in the US pilot running since early 2026, Lilli, McKinsey’s in-house generative AI. The task: work…
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By Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant · Updated October 2026 A consulting assessment test is an online screen that firms use to cut the applicant pool before a single human reads your case structure. McKinsey Solve, BCG’s Consulting Career Assessment, and Bain’s TestGorilla are the best-known examples. Most candidates treat these screens as formalities…
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By Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant · Updated October 5, 2026 Of the three MBB firms, Bain weighs personal fit the hardest, and candidates who treat the conversation as a warm-up walk out wondering why a clean case still got a ding. The Bain fit interview is the behavioral part of each live interview,…
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Florian spent five years at McKinsey as a Senior Consultant and is a highly experienced consulting interviewer and problem-solving coach. Having conducted interviews with hundreds of candidates, he understands exactly what top-tier firms look for in successful applicants.
He founded StrategyCase.com to make top consulting careers more accessible by providing tailored, up-to-date insights into the recruiting process. Recognized as the most successful case and fit interview coach, Florian has helped his clients secure 700+ offers at MBB, Tier-2 firms, Big 4 consulting divisions, in-house consultancies, and boutique firms over the past four years.
He is the author of “The 1%: Conquer Your Consulting Case Interview,” “The 1%: Case Interview Workbook,” and “Consulting Career Secrets”, all available on Amazon.
