The McKinsey Podcast Rewiring for AI: From ambition to advantage
106 snips
May 7, 2026 
Robert Levin, a McKinsey senior partner focused on AI strategy, and Kate Smaje, McKinsey senior partner and global tech and AI leader, discuss scaling generative and agentic AI. They cover updated playbooks for turning AI ambition into results. Conversations include value-at-scale metrics, agentic engineering, workforce changes, and practical first moves for leaders.
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Rewired Cohort Delivered Tangible Returns
- Top-performing companies applying the Rewired framework show measurable financial gains: ~20% EBITDA uplift and ~$3 return per $1 invested.
- Kate Smaje notes many became cash-accretive in 1–2 years and often focused on three or fewer domains.
Reimagine Whole Workflows Not Single MVPs
- Reorient strategy from isolated MVPs to reimagining entire end-to-end workflows where agentic AI can automate tasks.
- Robert Levin advises focusing on workflows rather than point use cases to unlock scale.
Agentic AI Upends Software Development Models
- Agentic AI collapses traditional software development roles but raises architecture complexity with many vendors vying to be the AI core.
- Robert Levin warns this can create brittle, costly architectures without careful design.
