Category: AI in Consulting

Candidate using AI for case interview prep while reviewing its strengths and blind spots.

AI Case Interview Prep: How to Use It (and Where AI Quietly Fails You)

By Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant. Updated July 2026. You have been running cases with ChatGPT for weeks. The frameworks look clean, the answers sound polished, and you feel like you are improving faster than you ever did with a book. You are probably building the wrong muscle. AI is genuinely useful for parts…
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Consultant comparing AI capabilities with human judgment in the future of consulting.

Will AI Replace Consultants? An Ex-McKinsey Reality Check

By Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant. Updated October 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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AI hologram participating in a consulting interview with two business professionals, illustrating the role of AI in consulting interviews.

AI Now Sits in the Consulting Interview

Updated November 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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Cover image for an article titled “Bain AI Interview: What’s Real and How to Prepare,” showing a consulting candidate in an interview room using AI-assisted case tools, digital framework panels, charts, and issue-tree notes to prepare for a Bain-style AI-enabled case interview.

Bain AI Interview 2026: The Real Format and How to Prepare

Updated November 2026 · By Dr. Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant The Bain AI interview is an immersive case interview with a ChatGPT segment built in. You get 40 minutes alone with 10 to 20 slides describing a client situation and complete a set of template slides. You then present your answer in up…
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Cybersecurity consultant at a desk beside a monitor displaying a shield, padlock, and connected network nodes. Representative of Cybersecurity Consultant Careers.

Cybersecurity Consultant Careers: Top Firms and How to Get In

Updated September 24, 2026 | By Dr. Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant A cybersecurity consultant advises organizations on cyber risk, security programs, and attacks, and the firm you join decides which of those you actually do. At the global integrators (Accenture, IBM, and the Big 4), you help run large security programs. At the strategy firms…
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