Clients press a consultancy to price outcomes, not hours

Claim

McKinsey clients are pressing the firm to tie fees to outcomes such as lower costs or higher profits rather than billable hours, on the grounds that hours mean less once consultants quietly delegate diagnosis to AI.

Reporting date: 2026-05-25 (not necessarily the event date)

Sources

Attribution and reporting linked by this record; links do not imply independent verification.

• Welcome to May 25, 2026 (theinnermostloop.substack.com)