Updated July 2026 · By Florian Smeritschnig, Former McKinsey Senior Consultant Big 4 salaries in 2026 range from approximately $85,000 entry-level at KPMG to $1.5 million+ at Partner level at Deloitte, with PwC, EY, and KPMG spread across that range. Deloitte pays at the top of the Big 4 at most levels, followed by PwC…
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By Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant. Updated July 2026. Can AI do consulting work? Not yet, at least not the whole job. The most rigorous test to date, Mercor’s 2026 APEX-Agents benchmark, dropped leading AI models into realistic consulting tasks and found that the best of them finished fewer than 25% correctly on the…
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Management consultants are paid so much because they sell scarce, elite talent to solve problems worth far more than their fees. Firms price to the value they create, not the hours they work, and only about 1 in 100 applicants survives the hiring filter. I spent five years at McKinsey as a Senior Consultant, and…
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By Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant. Updated July 2026. Will AI replace junior consultants? No, not the role, but yes, much of the old entry-level task list. AI handles the research, data work, and slide drafting that once filled a junior’s first year and built their judgment. Firms still hire juniors, but they expect…
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By Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant. Updated July 2026. The impact of AI on consulting is the shift from a people-heavy pyramid, where large cohorts of junior analysts do research, modeling, and slides, toward leaner, AI-augmented teams. AI now handles much of that entry-level production work, which raises the bar on judgment, client skills,…
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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.
