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BCG's North America chair: Judgment, not AI, is the 'bull's-eye'
BCG's North America chair found traditional consultants had 'double the' tech skills he expected. Now the firm trains all staff on AI, betting judgment matters most.
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Mel Wolfgang walked into his new role as BCG's North America chair in May expecting a clear headcount. What he found surprised him.
He asked how many of the firm's traditional consultants had skill sets resembling those of BCG's technical hires. The number was higher than expected.
"I've actually kind of got double the workforce that I thought I had, and I started to really categorize what people know," Wolfgang said.
Nearly as many people with traditional consulting backgrounds, the "English lit major with an MBA" as Wolfgang put it, had developed capabilities that approximated those of BCG's specialized technical staff. The firm gauged those skills through tests and employees' demonstrated work on client engagements.
The discovery is reshaping how BCG thinks about hiring and training in an era where AI is becoming central to consulting work. Wolfgang said the firm is accelerating its hiring of both technical talent and business generalists. What he wants, specifically, is the overlap.
"I'm trying to find the Venn diagram overlap of that as much as I possibly can," he said.
That means looking for candidates who combine technical proficiency with the critical thinking BCG has traditionally prized. Many new hires are arriving with a broader range of technical skills already in hand. In interviews, BCG will ask whether candidates have experience using AI tools such as Claude and Codex.
Those abilities only tell part of the story, Wolfgang said.
"You still have to frame the problem. You still have to work the analytics," he said.
Beyond that, consultants need to determine whether an AI generated answer makes sense. That, Wolfgang said, is where the craft comes in.
"The role of judgment has increased enormously, and that's an apprenticed skill," he said.
Senior staff spend time with junior consultants to help them arrive at the best answers, Wolfgang said. AI can generate insights, he noted, but "you might have to do it multiple times because what it spits out originally may require a lot of refinement and judgment."