TL;DR
McKinsey has launched a free AI practice tool for sample interviews. It also tests candidates on how they work with AI assistant Lilly.
McKinsey has launched a free AI practice tool In April, it gives candidates unlimited attempts at the quantitative case study they will face in their interview. The tool is available to applicants for entry-level business analyst and associate roles globally. The firm says it’s designed to level the playing field for candidates who can’t afford expensive consulting coaches.
The consulting interview coaching industry charges anywhere from $200 to $500 an hour. McKinsey’s free tool allows candidates to practice as many of the same quantitative scenarios as they would encounter in a real interview. Marie Christine Padberg, McKinsey’s co-head of global talent acquisition, told Business Insider that the tool also hits a nerve: “It’s one thing to do quantitative stuff, but it’s another thing to do it while someone is watching you.“
The internship tool is one half of McKinsey’s broader integration of AI into the recruiting process. The other half is more effective. Since January, the company has been testing the use of its in-house AI assistant Lilly during final round interviews for business school graduates.
Candidates in the pilot are asked to use Lilly to analyze a sample and refine their results. Interviews evaluate how applicants propose a system, evaluate its results, and apply them to a specific customer scenario. The test measures curiosity and judgment, not rapid engineering.
McKinsey does not test whether candidates can avoid AI. He checks that he can work effectively with it. The difference reflects how consulting itself has changed. Consultants are now expected to move beyond the analysis that clients can do internally and move toward problem framing, judgment, and implementation.
The scale of AI within McKinsey makes the hiring queue logical. CEO Bob Sternfels said at CES in January that the firm currently has about 25,000 AI agents supporting 60,000 human employees. 18 months ago, this number was 3,000. More than 75% of McKinsey employees use Lilly every month.
McKinsey also cut about 200 technology roles as AI automates non-customer-facing operations. The firm has reduced its total workforce by more than 10% between 2023 and 2025. The most entry-level roles affected are positions where the AI practice tool is designed to secure candidates.
The tension between creating and eliminating AI jobs is evident in the hiring market. Forward posted engineer ads increase 19 times per year. Claude Evangelist earns $240,000. Chief AI officers make about $500,000. The jobs created by AI pay more and require different skills than the jobs it replaces.
McKinsey’s approach encodes this transition into the interview itself. The firm does not ask candidates if they use artificial intelligence. This makes AI fluency an entry requirement. CaseBasix, an interviewing consulting firm, said BCG and Bain will follow similar AI interview components.
A broader pattern is consistent. Detroit’s automakers are cutting white-collar workers as they post AI roles. Salesforce eliminated 4,000 support jobs after deploying AI agents. McKinsey is also cutting its workforce and redesigning its hiring process to select people who can work alongside the technology that is putting others out of business.
The quantitative component is especially important, Padberg said, because “even in an AI-powered workplace, advisors still need to understand how the numbers add up and what they mean.” AI can generate analysis. It cannot yet determine whether the analysis is relevant to a specific customer problem. This judgment gap McKinsey’s interview is now designed to test.
The class of 2025 and 2026 graduates are entering the job market where AI fluency is no longer a bonus skill. At McKinsey, this is already part of the entrance exam. A free practice tool makes training accessible. The Lilly interview makes the standard clear: If you can’t cooperate with an AI under pressure, you won’t get a job.
