QuantumBlack: A Global Force in Agentic AI Transformation

“Transform faster. Innovate smarter. Anticipate the future.” This is the mantra of QuantumBlack, the AI consulting firm owned by McKinsey. 

Placing itself at the centre of the evolving world of AI consulting, QuantumBlack stands out as a leader in blending technical excellence with business insight. 

Acquired by McKinsey in 2015, QuantumBlack has grown into a global AI transformation unit with specialists focused on delivering measurable value through machine learning strategy and advanced analytics.

“The magic of QuantumBlack is the combination of rigorous science and real software craftsmanship,” says Tomás Lajous, Senior Partner and Global Leader of QuantumBlack Labs. 

“Our people think like researchers and build like product engineers – so the solutions we create don’t just work in theory; they stand up in complex, real-world environments.”

AI value creation through hybrid intelligence

The company has always operated in high performance environments, ever since its origins in 2009, where it was used to give Formula 1 racing teams a competitive edge.

Its team still carry the philosophies of its F1 clients, who “live and breathe data”. Today, QuantumBlack combines powerful AI and data driven insights with deep domain intelligence and strategic thinking. 

The firm also champions hybrid intelligence, merging human expertise with algorithmic precision to help organisations reinvent operations, scale AI initiatives and anticipate future business challenges.

“QuantumBlack is no longer just a boutique insight team – it’s becoming a global force,” says Alex Singla, Senior Partner and Global Co-leader of QuantumBlack.

“As we scale up, we’re taking sophisticated AI capabilities into entire enterprise systems, delivering impact at an order of magnitude that few teams in our industry can. 

“The first decade of QuantumBlack proved what’s possible. The next will redefine what’s imaginable. We’re just getting started.”

QuantumBlack Labs and agents at scale

QuantumBlack Labs act as innovation hubs where technologists and designers co-create tools and frameworks that reduce risk and accelerate impact. 

QB offers more than 25 proprietary tools, including Iguazio (a holistic AI platform that helps to manage AI application at scale), Turo (an application that can automate KPI collection) and Optimus AI (an data insights tool that enables real-time decision making in heavy industries like mining, metals and chemicals). 

Advancing now at machine speed, the company offers Agents at Scale, QuantumBlack’s factory of AI agents that work together to deliver complex digital transformations.

Emily Sagar-Jones, principal data scientist at QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, describes this as “a digital factory floor” where work is “done by agents we’d built”.

“It all started over two years ago with experiments in using Gen AI to modernise legacy code,” Emily notes. 

“Fast forward to last summer, we began exploring AI agents – and today, we’re building Agentic workforces that are reshaping how our clients operate.

“What began as a ‘what if?’ idea, has evolved into a scalable solution that automates complex workflows and delivers real, measurable business impact.”

QuantumBlack agents are able to take over complex end-to-end operations with high accuracy outputs, all the way from generating coding architecture by decoding business logic, to coder agents that can produce clean code.

These agents are now achieving accuracy of more than 90%, leaving only 10% of code to be corrected by human experts. 

“This work goes far beyond building technology – it’s about unlocking value for clients and their people,” Emily says. 

“A major part of our role is bridging the gap between cutting-edge technology and industry expertise. Many clients have little prior exposure to agentic systems, so we focus on designing processes with them, validating outputs together and helping them build the capabilities to sustain the work long after we leave.”

Leading AI consulting 

Involving cutting-edge AI in its operations, places QuantumBlack in a comfortably leading position in the competitive AI consulting market as it combines deep technical knowledge with industry insight. 

By leveraging agentic AI and custom-built tools, each suited to address specific operational tasks, the unit helps organisations move beyond proofs of concept to scalable AI transformation initiatives that deliver measurable results.

Its work spans sectors from retail and life sciences to telecoms and energy, using machine learning strategy and Gen AI solutions to unlock new growth and efficiency opportunities. 

Through strategic guidance, technical execution and client capability building, QuantumBlack remains a trusted partner for organisations seeking to harness the full potential of AI.