McKinsey & Company

For decades, access to information created advantage. Today, information is abundant. As we reflect on our history of insights, one idea stands out: progress comes not from knowing more, but from knowing what matters most and acting on it.

AI is getting cheaper. Creating value with AI isn't. As adoption scales, many organizations are shifting their focus from capability to economics: where value is created, how costs scale, and what it takes for returns to outpace investment.

As AI makes shopping more efficient, physical stores may become more human. The opportunity isn't just to help customers buy. It's to give them a reason to show up in the first place.

The real value of AI isn't always finding the answer. Sometimes it's helping experts make better decisions before all the answers are available. That's what Team Visma | Lease a Bike set out to do with QuantumBlack.

📚 The books leaders recommend often reveal the questions they're trying to answer. This year's annual book recommendations list brings together nearly 100 picks on leadership, resilience, AI, history, and more.

AI models keep changing. The CEO's responsibility doesn't. The most important AI decisions are still about ambition, operating models, and culture. Those choices can't be delegated.

What gets a founder to $1B won’t necessarily get the company to $10B. Our analysis of 2,700+ founder-led companies shows only about 10% reach $10B, highlighting a different challenge at scale: knowing what needs to change as the company grows.

A lot of companies invest heavily in forecasting. Fewer invest in being wrong. When uncertainty becomes constant, competitive advantage comes less from having the right forecast and more from responding faster when the forecast is wrong.

Not every AI problem needs your best model. The real skill is knowing which few decisions are worth frontier intelligence — and which aren't. Here's the checklist leaders are using to make that call.

People aren't planning one trip anymore. They're exploring multiple destinations across social, search, reviews, and AI at the same time. When attention is fragmented, every disconnected experience is an opportunity for someone else to win the booking.

Mission is a decision filter. In #ShapersAndFounders, it is one of six leadership behaviors behind sustained outperformance across 30 of Asia’s extraordinary owner-CEOs.

Most B2B companies are experimenting with AI. Growth leaders are redesigning the commercial playbook around it. The result: better opportunities, smarter decisions, and stronger customer outcomes.

New Yorkers are placing a higher priority on healthy longevity than the rest of the country, with millennials and Gen X leading the way. That shift is expanding the market for solutions that can deliver measurable health outcomes, not just wellness claims.

Some of the most valuable capital may already be inside the business. By improving cash conversion and reducing trapped working capital, CFOs can unlock liquidity and create more room to invest in what matters most.

How do you scale for a billion consumers? Meesho CEO and cofounder Vidit Aatrey shares lessons on affordability, local commerce, and AI in the latest #LeadingAsia conversation.

AI is becoming part of everyday work. The challenge is that costs don't always scale predictably alongside it. As usage grows, more leaders are focusing on AI economics, building the discipline to manage costs and capture value over the long term.

A notable shift in CPG is that growth is no longer won by optimizing individual decisions alone. As commercial decisions become more interconnected, coordination is becoming just as important as optimization.

The debate around AI and talent opportunities often misses the bigger point: technology creates value only when organizations change how work gets done. Eric Kutcher, North America Chair, discusses what that means for the future workforce.

The value of AI isn't making the decision. It's creating more time to make the right one. We're helping @vismaleaseabike surface insights faster so teams can adapt when every second counts.

AI is becoming easier to access. Redesigning the business around it is the hard part. The companies creating value aren't just deploying AI. They're rethinking how work gets done.