McKinsey and Salesforce Partner to Accelerate Generative AI Adoption Across Industries

Strategic consulting firm McKinsey & Company and Salesforce, today announced an ambitious partnership aimed at expediting the integration of reliable generative artificial intelligence (AI) into sales, marketing, commerce, and service functions.

According to McKinsey, the collaboration will leverage Salesforce’s CRM capabilities, including Einstein and Data Cloud, in conjunction with McKinsey’s proprietary AI models, data assets, and proficiency in capability building.

“Generative AI is a powerful catalyst for growth. But the promise of AI needs to be backed by built-for-growth technology and the operational muscle to fully realize the potential,” said Lareina Yee, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company. “We are collaborating with Salesforce on this critical front to bring our proprietary AI assets, data models and tech build/design capabilities to help our clients turn innovation into impact– all delivered together in Salesforce workflows.”

Together, the companies aim to assist enterprises in harnessing structured and unstructured data to enhance customer purchasing experiences, boost sales efficiency, personalize digital marketing initiatives, and reduce customer service resolution times.

“In today’s business landscape, adopting an AI-first approach rooted in trust and transparency isn’t a choice, but a necessity to succeed,” said Clara Shih, CEO of Salesforce AI. “Salesforce and McKinsey are coming together to empower every company with the strategies and technologies needed to fully leverage generative AI across their organization to engage with customers in personalized ways, unlock new opportunities and achieve growth.”

This collaboration builds on a history of successful partnerships between McKinsey and Salesforce in facilitating digital transformations for organizations. Notably, it follows McKinsey’s acquisition of Salesforce Platinum Partner S4G Consulting in 2022.

McKinsey said the partnership aligns with the company’s recent strategic acquisitions, which have strengthened its AI capabilities, and underscores its corporate affiliate program with Stanford Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.

Streamlining Business Workloads Through Generative AI 

McKinsey asserts that generative AI is catalyzing productivity advancements across diverse industries, particularly in marketing and sales.

A recent research conducted by McKinsey estimates that generative AI has the potential to unlock a staggering $4.4 trillion in global productivity over the coming decades. Furthermore, the company believes it could drive a 5-15 percent increase in total marketing spending and a 3-5 percent surge in sales productivity.

“McKinsey’s research identified approximately $4.4 trillion in long term value by applying Generative AI and automation technologies. Of this, $1.6 trillion will be in sales, marketing, and customer operations functions,” McKinsey’s Lareina Yee told Metaverse Post. “Collaborating with Salesforce, whose software focuses on these critical functions, will help our clients capture the productivity potential.”

Notably, 40 percent of enterprises surveyed expressed their intent to invest in generative AI.

The McKinsey-Salesforce collaboration aims to assist companies in realizing tangible outcomes by deploying their software, data assets, and a scalable implementation methodology for generative AI solutions.

“We hear from business leaders in CRM all the time – how do we unlock the potential of AI to positively impact our business,” said McKinsey’s Lareina Yee. “Our joint team of data scientists, solution architects, cloud engineers, UX designers and organization culture specialists will work side by side with company teams.”

The collaboration promises an end-to-end experience that aligns a company’s business strategy with AI use cases. This process involves rapid solution design by McKinsey, incorporating a proof of concept, minimum viable product (MVP) development, and user testing, ultimately enabling the integration of AI solutions with people systems for large-scale deployment.

Recognizing the need for speed, flexibility, and demonstrable ROI in tech investments, the partnership will also cater to companies that wish to “bring your own LLM” (Lead, Learn, and Manage) approach.

Lareina Yee said the company aims to provide a platform that facilitates quick access to relevant data, streamlined query processes, and insightful data summaries, empowering businesses to operate with increased efficiency and intelligence. Salesforce and McKinsey intend to help companies keep pace with market innovation while exceeding their performance expectations.

“Generative AI can unlock novel and practical use cases for businesses and speed up, scale, and improve existing ones. Most recently, we acquired Iguazio in early 2023 to provide clients with AI solutions that are more productive, faster, and reliable,” Lareina Yee explained. “We strive to embed AI into real-time decision-making to help solve the world’s most challenging problems. These capabilities demonstrate our commitment to bringing leading artificial intelligence technology to clients.”

Addressing concerns about trust and transparency in AI, Lareina Yee emphasized the firm’s commitment to responsible and ethical AI applications across diverse industries.

She said McKinsey’s teams employ generative AI for client projects, implementing stringent data privacy measures. These platforms adhere to standard security policies for handling confidential information. Moreover, she said McKinsey continually educates and trains its employees to promote the responsible use of these technologies.

“We believe AI has the power to transform business and are committed to helping our clients and our people harness that potential with clear principles and ethical guardrails for the responsible use of AI,” McKinsey’s Lareina Yee told Metaverse Post. “The pace of change for ourselves and our clients has never been faster and we will continuously update our principles to support world-leading responsible and inclusive AI advancements.”