Nearly 90% of BCG employees are using AI — and it's reshaping how they're evaluated (www.businessinsider.com)

Boston Consulting Group has formally embedded AI into how it evaluates consultants: AI use is now an unstated expectation woven into core competencies like problem solving and insight. The firm reports nearly 90% adoption across its 33,000 employees and about 50% "habitual" (daily) users — hitting a target months early — and warns that those who don’t use AI risk falling behind on promotions. Importantly, AI hasn’t replaced judgment; performance is still judged on how consultants interpret and apply AI‑generated insights, and one internal AI tool cuts performance‑review writing time by ~40% while boosting quality metrics by ~20%. BCG’s rapid uptake is driven by an internal ecosystem of tools, training, and experimentation: a generative AI learning team, 1,200 local adopters, ~1,500 “advanced users,” and eight–nine in‑house tools (e.g., Deckster, trained on 800–900 slide templates, and GENE, a GPT‑4o‑powered chatbot with ElevenLabs voice). Consultants are building no‑code custom GPTs to review decks, anticipate client questions, and enforce formatting — BCG now leads OpenAI customers in custom GPT volume, with five times the builders year‑over‑year. The result is measurable time savings (about 70% of reclaimed time is reinvested into higher‑value analysis) and a reshaping of consulting workflows and talent expectations across the industry.