Let's be honest for a moment.

If someone told you five years ago that a major consulting firm would count AI systems as part of its official headcount, you'd probably laugh it off as science fiction.

Well, it's 2026. And it's happening right now.

McKinsey CEO Bob Sternfels recently gave an answer that stopped the business world in its tracks. When asked how many people his company employs, he said: "60,000: 40,000 humans and 25,000 agents."

Read that again. Twenty-five thousand AI agents. Not tools. Not software. Agents — counted alongside human employees.

This Isn't the Future. It's Already Here.

Here's what's truly staggering.

According to Business Insider's report, just eighteen months ago, McKinsey had 3,000 AI agents. Today? 25,000.

That's not gradual adoption. That's a revolution.

And Sternfels expects to reach parity — equal numbers of humans and AI agents — by the end of this year.

Think about that. One of the world's most prestigious consulting firms could soon have as many AI workers as human ones.

The Numbers Are Hard to Ignore

So what are these AI agents actually doing?

Quite a lot, as it turns out.

As reported by the Daily Tribune of Bahrain, McKinsey saved 1.5 million hours last year on research and data synthesis alone. Their AI agents churned out 2.5 million charts in just six months.

Those are tasks that junior consultants used to spend weeks on. Now? Done in hours.

Under their '25-squared' model, client-facing roles are growing by 25 per cent. But non-client-facing positions? They've shrunk by the same margin.

The twist? Output from those reduced teams has actually increased by 10 per cent. According to WebProNews, this is fundamentally changing how consulting works.

McKinsey Isn't Alone

If this were just one company, you might dismiss it as an experiment.

But it's not.

CX Dive reported that Salesforce slashed its customer support team from 9,000 to 5,000 people. Their AI platform, Agentforce, handled 1.5 million customer enquiries in nine months.

Customer satisfaction? Still steady. Costs? Dramatically lower.

Then there's Amazon.

CEO Andy Jassy didn't mince words in a memo published on Amazon's official blog. He told employees directly: "We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today."

That's not speculation. That's the CEO of the world's second-largest private employer telling his 1.56 million workers that AI is coming for their jobs.

CNN Business confirmed the scale of this shift. And Al Jazeera later reported that Amazon confirmed 14,000 layoffs as part of the reorganisation.

But Here's Where It Gets Interesting

Not every company got it right.

Take Klarna, the Swedish fintech giant.

In early 2024, they made headlines. According to OpenAI's case study, their AI chatbot was handling two-thirds of all customer service chats. It was doing the work of 700 full-time employees.

Klarna's leadership was thrilled. They froze hiring. Headcount dropped from 5,500 to 3,400.

Then reality hit.

By May 2025, CX Dive reported that Klarna was reversing course. CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski admitted: "Cost unfortunately seems to have been a too predominant evaluation factor... what you end up having is lower quality."

The AI couldn't do what humans do best — show empathy, handle nuance, solve complex problems with a personal touch.

As Fast Company analysed, they started hiring humans again. The lesson? AI is powerful, but it's not a complete replacement for human connection.

Let's Talk About What This Really Means

Here's the uncomfortable truth no one wants to say out loud.

In a few years, many industries could have more AI employees than human ones.

That's not alarmism. That's mathematics.

McKinsey went from 3,000 to 25,000 AI agents in eighteen months. If that pace continues — and there's no sign it's slowing — we're looking at a fundamental shift in what a 'workforce' even means.

According to TechCrunch's investor survey, venture capitalists predict 2026 is the year companies start moving budgets from human labour to AI. Not adding AI alongside humans. Moving budgets from humans to AI.

IEEE Spectrum reported that entry-level hiring at the top fifteen tech firms dropped 25 per cent in just one year. These are the jobs that used to be the gateway to careers. Now? AI is doing them.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has warned that AI could eliminate half of entry-level white-collar jobs within five years.

Half. Within five years.

If you're a business owner reading this and thinking "that won't affect my industry" — you might want to reconsider.

So Where Does This Leave You?

Look, I'm not here to scare you. But I am here to be direct.

If your competitors are saving 1.5 million hours a year whilst you're still doing things the old way, you're not standing still. You're falling behind.

McKinsey's State of AI report found that high-performing organisations are three times more likely to use AI for transformative change. They're not just cutting costs. They're reinventing how they work.

As HR Grapevine noted, there's even a new job emerging: managing AI agents. Not people. AI systems. That's the world we're moving into.

Tech.co has documented company after company making this shift. Boston Consulting Group. PwC. Deloitte. KPMG. They're all moving from traditional advisory work to AI-driven transformation.

The question isn't whether AI will transform your industry.

It's whether you'll be leading that transformation — or scrambling to catch up.

The Smart Way Forward

Here's the good news.

Klarna's stumble and McKinsey's success teach us the same lesson: thoughtful integration beats blind replacement.

You don't need to fire everyone and replace them with robots tomorrow. That's not what the successful companies are doing.

What they are doing is identifying where AI can handle the repetitive, time-consuming tasks — and freeing their human talent for work that actually requires a human touch.

Creativity. Empathy. Strategic thinking. Complex problem-solving. Building relationships.

According to Salesforce's internal case study, their AI handles millions of enquiries, but they still employ thousands of humans for complex issues. The result? High customer satisfaction and dramatic efficiency gains.

That's the model that works. Humans and AI, together.

The Clock Is Ticking

Andy Jassy put it simply: "Be curious about AI, educate yourself, attend workshops and take trainings, use and experiment with AI whenever you can."

That advice wasn't just for Amazon employees. It's for all of us.

As HRD America reported, McKinsey is already using AI in job interviews. The transformation isn't coming. It's here.

The firms that thrive will be the ones that see AI not as a threat, but as an opportunity. They'll upskill their people. They'll integrate AI thoughtfully. They'll build hybrid teams where humans and AI make each other better.

McKinsey went from 3,000 to 25,000 AI agents in eighteen months.

How long can your firm afford to wait?

The transformation has begun. The only question is: are you ready?