Blog posts

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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Consultants using AI strategy dashboards to explore the future of consulting by 2030.

The Future of Consulting: How AI Reshapes the Industry by 2030

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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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 July 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 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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Professional cover image for an article on consulting assessment tests, showing a laptop with an online numerical and verbal reasoning test interface, connected assessment icons, and the title “Consulting Assessment Tests: Every Firm’s Online Screen” in a clean blue corporate design.

Consulting Assessment Tests: Every Firm’s Online Screen in 2026

By Florian Smeritschnig, former McKinsey Senior Consultant · Updated June 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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