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BCG's chief executive said the $12 billion consulting firm expects to generate a fifth of its revenue in 2024 from helping corporations integrate artificial intelligence into their businesses. This share is predicted to achieve 40 percent by 2026.
Christoph Schweizer told the Financial Times that AI and generative AI represented “an enormous boost in revenue” last yr as corporations moved from experimenting with the technology to “deploying it at scale.”
BCG works with global technology giants and AI corporations – from Microsoft and Google to OpenAI and Anthropic – to integrate their technology into company operations and processes. In addition, training is being provided to board members and leadership teams who increasingly see this as a business priority.
“We have never seen a subject change into relevant as quickly as Gen AI,” said Schweizer, adding that he personally uses large language models to create meeting minutes, write emails and summarize documents.
The good portion of BCG's revenue from AI consulting, which has not yet been disclosed, highlights how consulting firms try to capitalize on the generative AI boom.
A jump in revenue in BCG's AI division also partially offset a decline in other business areas last yr amid a tougher economic environment. BCG's total revenue rose just 5 percent to $12.3 billion in 2023, the corporate's weakest growth in no less than seven years.
However, Schweizer said the advisory market “feels more positive” this yr, adding that BCG's revenue was back up “in the kids” as a percentage in the primary quarter of 2024.
From customer support chatbots to data migration to overhauling healthcare R&D, Swiss corporations say BCG helps corporations use AI to cut back costs and increase productivity. “We are seeing amazing adoption of use cases,” he added.
Schweizer claimed that competitors were behind BCG in AI consulting work because the corporate recognized it early on as a possible growth driver. BCG, which began investing in its AI business in 2015, employs around 3,000 people in its technology and design division BCG Write texts, summarize information and create slides.
“When it involves telling my team that it's nice to go to our customers and tell them they need to vary, I'm essentially the most vocal and I might say most ruthless leader, but we want BCG the identical way change,” he told Schweizer. “We take our own medicine.”
The company was a part of a Harvard Business School study that examined the impact of OpenAI's GPT-4 model on its employees. Consultants who were assigned the AI tool were more productive than those that weren’t assigned it. They worked faster and the work was of upper quality.
Schweizer said advising on climate change and sustainability projects continues to be the corporate's fastest-growing practice in 2023, at the same time as company leaders have been less vocal about environmental, social and governance issues in comparison with several years ago referred to the backlash in some countries, including: the US, against stakeholder capitalism.
“Are there parts of the world where CEOs would favor to maintain their ESG aspects on the back burner? . . and climate agendas? Absolutely, yes,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean they’re not committed to it. . . The rhetoric is way more cautious.”
