McKinsey AI-Assisted Interview Privacy & AI Notice
Last updated and effective: October 27, 2026.
McKinsey is committed to respecting your privacy and protecting your personal data. This privacy and AI notice explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect personal data in connection with AI-assisted interviews for candidates applying for roles with the Firm and individuals seeking External Worker (“EW”) engagements with the Firm. This notice supplements the Firm’s Recruitment Privacy Notice (collectively, the “Privacy and AI Notice”) and both should be read in conjunction. In case of a conflict between this supplemental notice and the Recruitment Privacy Notice, this supplemental notice will govern as regards personal data collected by the Firm for the purpose of AI-assisted interviews. In case of a conflict between this Privacy and AI Notice and applicable law, applicable law will govern.
If you are a California resident, please see our specific privacy information for you below.
Please note that participation in an AI-assisted interview is entirely voluntary. By choosing to participate, you confirm that you have read and understand the terms of this Privacy and AI Notice. If you do not understand or agree with any part of this Privacy and AI Notice, please contact us for clarification.
The interview you are about to undertake is conducted entirely by an AI system, specifically, an AI-powered chatbot. You will not be interacting with a human being during this stage of the recruitment/assessment process.
What Mia does and how it works
Mia is designed to conduct structured interviews by asking you a series of questions which are used to help assess whether you meet the objective eligibility criteria for the specific role or EW engagement, such as:
- Your geographic location or willingness to relocate
- Years of relevant professional experience
- Proficiency in required languages
- Possession of specific qualifications or certifications required for the role or EW engagement
The criteria are predefined by the hiring or selection team and reflect the minimum requirements for the position or EW engagement. Your responses are compared against the predefined eligibility criteria using automated processing. The AI interviewer does not evaluate subjective qualities such as personality, cultural fit, or soft skills, and the chatbot does not use the recordings to identify or infer emotions. It assesses only whether your stated qualifications meet the objective requirements specified for the role or EW engagement.
The AI’s assessment may influence whether you are invited to continue to the next stage of the recruitment/assessment process. A positive assessment indicates that your responses meet the predefined eligibility criteria; a negative assessment indicates that one or more criteria were not met based on the information you provided.
However, no candidate or individual is rejected solely on the basis of the chatbot’s output. All AI-generated assessments are reviewed by a human before any decision is made regarding your candidacy or prospective engagement (see “Human Oversight and Decision-Making” section below).
Personal data we collect
In connection with the Firm’s AI-assisted interviews, we may collect personal data that you choose to provide or that is generated through your participation in the interview. This may include your textual responses to questions posed by the chatbot, a transcript of the full conversation, an AI-generated summary of your responses, and an AI-generated eligibility assessment indicating whether your responses meet the predefined criteria for the role or EW engagement. Please note that these data categories are collected in addition to any personal data you have already provided as part of your application/profile as further described in the Recruitment Privacy Notice.
Depending on how the interview is administered, we may also collect related metadata, such as recording date and time, technical recording information, language information, and other relevant information used to conduct and administer the interviews.
Use of your personal data
The Firm uses personal data collected in connection with AI-assisted interviews solely for legitimate business purposes related to your recruitment/assessment process. Specifically, your responses will be:
- Transcribed to create a written record of the conversation;
- Used to generate an AI summary and eligibility assessment; and
- Shared with the human responsible for your application or prospective engagement
At the individual level, the Firm may use and share your personal data to administer and facilitate your AI-assisted interview, communicate with you about the interview or assessment process, confirm your participation and any related preferences or consents, evaluate your application/profile, maintain recruitment/assessment records, and support related recruitment/assessment, compliance, and recordkeeping activities.
The Firm may use anonymized, de-identified, and aggregated information derived from personal data for internal reporting, analytics, governance, compliance, risk management, and recruitment/assessment improvement purposes, to the extent permitted by applicable law.
We process your personal data during the AI-assisted interview on the following legal basis:
- Processing is necessary for steps taken at your request prior to entering into an employment contract or engagement (i.e., evaluating your suitability for the role to which you have applied or the EW engagement you are seeking).
- Processing is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interest in conducting an efficient and consistent recruitment/assessment process, provided that this interest is not overridden by your rights and freedoms.
Please note the chatbot is not designed to collect sensitive personal data. We strongly encourage you to not provide sensitive personal data during the AI-assisted interview and limit your responses to the specific questions asked.
Logic involved, significance, and envisaged consequences
The chatbot evaluates your responses against objective eligibility criteria defined for the specific role to which you have applied or EW engagement you are seeking. These criteria may include but are not limited to:
- Geographic location or willingness to relocate
- Years of relevant professional experience
- Proficiency in required languages
- Possession of specific qualifications or certifications required for the role or EW engagement
The criteria are predefined by the hiring or selection team and reflect the minimum requirements for the position or engagement.
Your responses are compared against the predefined eligibility criteria using automated processing. The chatbot does not evaluate subjective qualities such as personality, cultural fit, or soft skills. It assesses only whether your stated qualifications meet the objective requirements specified for the role or EW engagement.
The AI’s assessment may influence whether you are invited to continue to the next stage of the recruitment/assessment process. A positive assessment indicates that your responses meet the predefined eligibility criteria; a negative assessment indicates that one or more criteria were not met based on the information you provided.
However, no candidate or individual is rejected solely on the basis of Mia’s output. Mia does not make hiring or selection decisions and it does not determine whether you advance in the recruitment/assessment process, receive an offer or are selected, or are rejected. All AI-generated assessments are reviewed by a human before any decision is made regarding your candidacy or prospective engagement.
Accuracy and limitations
No AI system is infallible. While Mia is designed to provide consistent, structured summaries and assessments, it has inherent limitations. AI-assisted output may not fully capture the nuance, context, or depth of every candidate’s or individual’s response. Factors such as audio quality, speech patterns, language differences, or technical issues may affect the accuracy of the system’s outputs.
McKinsey acknowledges these limitations and has implemented safeguards, including mandatory human review of all AI-generated summaries and assessments, to reduce the risk that any technical limitation adversely affects a candidate’s or individual’s evaluation.
Bias mitigation and fairness
We contractually require the provider of the underlying AI model to design the model to reduce the risk of unlawful bias based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, or any other protected characteristic.
Human oversight and decision-making
Mia is used to support, not replace, human decision-making in the recruitment/assessment process. Candidates and individuals will not be rejected solely on the basis of Mia’s assessment or other AI-generated outputs. Before any material decision is made about your candidacy or prospective engagement, a qualified reviewer, manager, or other authorized reviewer will review the relevant AI-assisted interview outputs and consider them together with other information available as part of your application or profile.
Human reviewers are trained to evaluate AI-generated outputs appropriately and may consider the transcript or record of your interview, your application or profile materials, interview feedback, and other relevant recruitment/assessment information. Human reviewers retain full authority to accept, reject, modify, or disregard any AI-generated assessment or recommendation.
Data recipients
In addition to the data sharing disclosures described in the Recruitment Privacy Notice, the transcript of your AI-assisted interview, any AI-generated summary, and any AI-generated eligibility assessment may be shared with the following recipients:
- The human personnel assigned to evaluate your candidacy or prospective EW engagement;
- Members of the team involved in the recruitment/assessment process for the relevant role or EW engagement; and
- Third-party service providers that host, operate, or support the AI-assisted interview system, acting on our behalf and subject to appropriate contractual, confidentiality, and data protection safeguards.
Data retention
The Firm will retain personal data collected in connection with the AI-assisted interview program as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy and AI Notice, including administration of the program, development and operation of AI-assisted interviews, compliance with legal obligations, resolution of disputes, enforcement of agreements, and application of the Firm’s record retention requirements. If you accept an offer of employment or an engagement with the Firm, relevant data collected from your AI-assisted interview may be retained as part of your personnel or worker records.
Your rights
In addition to the rights described in the Recruitment Privacy Notice, you may have the following rights in connection with the AI-assisted interview subject to applicable laws in your jurisdiction:
- Right to object: You may object to the processing of your personal data through the AI chatbot on grounds relating to your particular situation.
- Right not to be subject to solely automated decisions: Consistent with applicable law, you will not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.
- Right to be informed: You are being informed, through this notice, that AI technology will be used to analyze your interview responses and assist in evaluating your candidacy or prospective engagement, as required under applicable laws.
If you would like to exercise your data protection rights regarding your personal data, please follow the instructions in the Recruitment Privacy Notice.
We welcome questions, comments, and feedback on this Privacy and AI Notice and our management of personal data. If you have questions, concerns, or feedback, you can always contact us using the email below. For your protection, we may need to verify your identity before assisting with your questions, comments, or feedback.
- Email: Privacy@mckinsey.com
Your California Privacy Rights Appendix
This appendix seeks to provide additional information to residents of California and supplements the information provided in the Privacy and AI Notice.
As disclosed in the Recruitment Privacy Notice, we do not “sell” or “share” personal data as those terms are defined under California privacy law. We also do not share personal data with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes without your consent. We do not purposefully “sell” or “share” the personal data of individuals under the age of 16. California residents under 18 years old, in certain circumstances, may request and obtain removal of personal data or content that you have posted on our websites. Please be mindful that this would not ensure complete removal of the content posted by you on our websites.
To learn more about the categories of personal data we collect, how we collect it, why it is collected, with whom we share it, and how long we retain it, please see the items below. Please see the instructions provided above in order to submit a privacy right request.